Emali crash: Truck driver is ex-Councillor Nganga Kivati

Details have started to emerge on the fiery dawn road crash that claimed more than nine lives near Sultan Hamud on Wednesday.

The driver of the truck that collided head-on with the BusCar bus was former councillor in Makueni County.

Mr Nganga Kivati, who is among those confirmed dead, was the councillor of Mtito Andei West Ward (currently Ivingoni/Nzambani Ward) between 2007 and 2013.

His former colleagues on Wednesday told the Nation that he abandoned politics and jumped behind the wheel after spending months in a driving school.

Mr Mutua Kyuma, one of his colleagues, was among those who mourned the former politician.

"I'm greatly saddened by the news of Cllr Nganga Kivati's sudden and untimely death,” he said.

“Nganga was a friend and a former colleague in County Council of Makueni. My heart-felt condolences to his wife, children, parents and his entire family.  May the Lord rest his soul in eternal peace," Mr Kyuma said.

Acccording to Kilungu police chief Paul Odede, the bus was trying to overtake another vehicle when the crash happened. 

"The bus... was trying to overtake another vehicle when it collided head-on with the lorry heading towards Nairobi," said Mr Odede. 

At least 10 people, passengers of the bus, remain unaccounted for amid fears they might have been burned beyond recognition.

Mr Odede said the remains of some of the passengers who had been burned beyond recognition were still trapped in the wreck of the bus.

It was not immediately clear what caused the flames and the Nation's efforts to speak to survivors where hampered by hospital staff who denied journalists access to wards.

At the crash scene, the wrecks of the jinxed vehicles lay separated from each other by heaps of metal, plastic and ash.

Tattered clothes, shoes, travelling bags and foodstuff dotted the scene in untidy heaps.

It is one of the ugliest case of vehicles bursting into flames after colliding.