Lucky to be alive: Survivor’s account of road crash that killed 11

Excited with the prospects of starting life afresh in Nairobi City, Ms Esther Nekesa, 21, embarked on a journey only for it to be cut short in a grisly accident at Ngata area on the Nakuru-Eldoret highway early Monday morning.

On Sunday at 9pm, she boarded an 11-seater matatu in Kitale enroute to Nairobi with her six-month-old baby boy Emanuel Kwemoi and a six-year-old daughter Ruth Chelangat.

Her plans were to join her husband who works in Nairobi for a complete family union. She also carried along her education documents and those of her daughter with hopes of securing a job and transferring her grade two daughter to a school in the city by next year.

But as fate would have it, the ill-fated matatu registered under the Farasi Sacco collided head-on with a lorry at the Ngata area near Salgaa along the Nakuru Eldoret highway.

Witness accounts and a road traffic report indicated the driver of the lorry lost control and veered off his lane before colliding with the matatu.

Eleven people died in the 3am crash among them Ms Nekesa’s son Emmanuel. Eight people died on the spot while three others died on the way to the hospital.

Now recuperating at the Nakuru Teaching and Referral Hospital, Ms Nekesa counts herself lucky but unable to comprehend the whole situation.

She cannot help but worry about her future and that of her family. She believes the documents she was carrying held the future of her family.

“I had carried my identity card and school documents which I was to use when looking for employment in the city. I also had my daughter’s document which I was to use to transfer her to a new school in the city but now I do not know where they are,” she said.

Nekesa, who was clearly in pain as she spoke, suffered broken limbs from the accident.

In her account, she was asleep during the journey and only woke up after the accident.

“I cannot tell what happened. I don’t even know the speed at which the matatu was moving as I was deeply asleep during the long journey,” she said.

She only recalls being awoken by a loud bang and finding herself by the roadside next to the mangled wreckage of the matatu and the lorry on the other side of the road.

Nekesa was among the first survivors to be rescued and rushed to the Nakuru Level Five hospital.

The hospital medical superintendent Dr James Waweru said the facility received seven victims from the crash. 

Three were confirmed dead on arrival including Ms Nekesa’s child, three others are receiving treatment. One passenger was treated and discharged.

“Two of the patients suffered serious head injuries while one (Nekesa)suffered broken legs. One of her children suffered head trauma and is unable to speak while the six-month-old baby was among those who were confirmed dead upon arrival at the hospital,” said Dr Waweru.

Nakuru police boss Samuel Ndanyi said they have launched a manhunt for the lorry driver who fled the scene after the accident.

The accident occurred weeks after the Nation highlighted the plight of road users on the Ngata bridge-Sobea-Salgaa stretch.

Statistics show that at least five lives are lost monthly on the stretch, with speeding and careless overtaking being attributed to the common crashes.

Residents faulted the government for failing to take action to avert accidents despite marking the stretch a black spot.

“Putting signage to indicate blackspot is enough, we need the government to move with speed to expand this road to avert future accidents,” said one of the residents.