19 injured after another bus overturns in Kericho

At least 19 passengers were injured when a bus they were traveling in overturned in Siwot area of Kericho County.

Area Police Commander Geoffrey Mayek, confirmed the accident, and stated that three of the injured were in critical condition. The incident occurred around 10 am when many of the passengers were transporting their agricultural produce to local markets.

Witnesses reported that the injured victims were promptly rescued and transferred to hospital for treatment. The exact cause of the accident is yet to be known. It is however believed that the bus was speeding and hit a pothole, leading to the overturning of the vehicle.

“The injured have been taken to Kaplong and Tenwek hospitals for treatment. The cause of the accident is under investigation. But we suspect that the bus was speeding when it hit a pothole,” a police source stated. 

Traffic police officers arrived at the accident scene promptly to process the evidence, including the wreckage of the bus. The wreckage was later towed to a local police station for further examination by relevant agencies, including insurance experts.

This accident follows another tragic incident in Kericho County just four days earlier. On Friday, June 30, a trailer lost control on the Kericho-Nakuru road, colliding with multiple vehicles and resulting in the deaths of over 50 people, with over 60 others sustaining injuries. The Londiani accident was deemed a national disaster by political leaders.

The death toll makes the accident one of the most deadly on Kenya’s roads in recent years. Last year, 34 people died in central Kenya when their bus veered off a bridge and plunged into a river valley.

Authorities have expressed concerns about the overall road safety situation in the country. Between January to March 2023, Kenya recorded 974 deaths from road accidents, according to date from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA). Of these, pedestrians accounted for the highest number of deaths at 330. They are followed by motorcyclists at 265, and passengers at 171.

President William Ruto has in the meantime acknowledged that Kenya is losing so many people annually in road accidents.

While efforts have been made to improve road safety, such as increasing the number of traffic police officers and implementing new laws to punish reckless driving, Ruto stated that more needs to be done to address the problem of road accidents in Kenya.