11 perish in Nakuru after lorry collides with a matatu

Eleven people perished on the spot Thursday morning when a Nairobi bound matatu collided head-on with a truck at Quarry area along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway.

The 11 were in the matatu when it was hit and dragged for about 40-metres and squeezed into a roadside embankment.

Koibatek Sub-County Commissioner, Samson Irungu said they rushed to the scene but were shocked to find 11 occupants in the matatu had perished and were trapped inside the vehicle.

However one person, Joseph Chigu Otieno, survived the accident.

“The lorry was loaded with twisted iron rods that made its momentum dangerous. When it lost control and swerved to the right it hit the matatu and pushed it forty metres off the road before coming to a halt when the two vehicles hit a side embankment.

"All the victims had multiple fractures and rescuers had a difficult time pulling the two vehicles apart in the hope of finding a survivor,” Mr Irungu said.

Koibatek Divisional Police Commander Bernard Kibe said a manhunt had been launched for the lorry driver and the turn boy who vanished from the scene immediately after the accident.

A third person who was in the lorry’s cabin said he heard a loud bang and the cabin tore off from the main body before it came to a halt thirty metres away.

The driver and the conductor vanished from the scene leaving a shocked Mr Okube, a Malaba-based second hand clothes dealer at the scene.

“I was asleep when I heard the driver yell ‘Mungu wangu’ (My Lord) and this was followed by a loud bang.

When I regained consciousness, blood was oozing from my forehead and before me was a mangled wreck of a matatu with its occupants dead,” he said.

Mr Okube said he had boarded the trailer at 9pm at Kangemi area along the Nakuru-Nairobi highway and paid Sh1,000 as fare from Nairobi to Malaba for him and his goods - two bundles of new jackets.