Silent massacre: How careless drivers have turned roads into killing fields

Damaris Kendi, 24, was a fun-loving and vivacious fresh graduate.

She had worked at a hotel in Milimani, Nairobi, for only three months.

On August 16 last year, as she took a carefree walk to the bus stop after work with her colleague, Peris Kemunto, she was killed by a hit-and-run driver who to this day has not been brought to justice.

Peris said she and her friend were chatting away on the way to the bus stop opposite the NSSF building on Valley Road.

As they walked past Integrity Centre, she recalled, she just saw “a greyish vehicle sweep her away”.

“All I heard was a loud bang and the next thing I saw was Dama on the ground. She did not even have the time to scream,” she said.

Almost a year later, Peris can’t precisely remember what happened. She only recalls the impact and her friend lying in a pool of blood surrounded by a crowd.

“I also remember seeing people screaming at the driver of that vehicle asking him to stop, but he sped off onto State House Road.

“At that time, my brain went blank and I did not even check the number plate of the car. I cannot even tell you the make of the car. All I know is that it was grey,” she said.

Crying and confused, Peris remembers trying to save her friend’s life and have her taken to hospital. At the time, Kendi was bleeding profusely.

“People with cars saw Dama on the road, showed sympathy and drove away. I was left there, wondering what to do. I remember seeing her legs especially the right leg actually broken. She was bleeding from the forehead and just in a bad state,” she recalled.

Fifteen agonising minutes later, police came. By that time, Kendi had stopped moving.

“The police asked me to accompany them to the Kenyatta National Hospital and so I took Dama’s handbag and entered a separate police vehicle from Kilimani Police Station,” she said.

On arrival at the hospital, they were given the bad news. Kendi had died on the way. Police told her they would take the body to the City Mortuary but asked her to wait and record a statement.

“I could not believe the whole thing. It was literally like a movie. Dama died just like that. She was so young and had just finished university. She was on her first job with so many aspirations. To date, I just can’t believe it. She did not even finish telling me about a workmate who had asked her out on a date,” said Peris.

Kendi became just a statistic in the worsening trend of pedestrians killed on the road by motorists who speed off after accidents. The trend also highlights the lack of emergency support and rescue for crash victims.

Just a month ago, Albanus Mutiso, 45, was knocked down on Haile Selassie Avenue at 6.30am by a matatu. He lay on the road in agony, without assistance, until his relatives arrived.

The matatu crew, said to have been a “squad” or temporary one, abandoned the vehicle and ran away. It is not clear whether police are investigating the case.

According to the National Transport and Safety Authority, 531 pedestrians were killed on Kenyan roads between January 1 and May 28 this year. At least half of them were knocked down in Nairobi. Another 510 were injured, some seriously.

NTSA’s director of road safety, Mr Matthew Munyao, said most of the accidents are caused by carelessness and drug abuse by the drivers. He also noted that the matatu “squad” system had also contributed to the high number of hit and run accidents.

“This is a system where the owner of the car employs a driver who is expected to give them a certain amount of money per day. After the daily target is reached, normally, the driver and the conductor are free to do as many trips as they can, without having to account for what they get,” he said.

In order to get a lot of money, Mr Munyao said, the driver and the conductor hire another driver and a conductor to relieve them while they go for lunch.

“The owner of the vehicle may not know this other driver or conductor and that is why tracing them when hit and run accidents happen is very hard. Most of the accidents involving matatus and buses are caused by the “squad” crew,” Mr Munyao said in an interview with the Nation.