Busy Embu-Mwea highway blocked for a second day running

EMBU, KENYA: Transport along the busy Embu-Mwea road was paralysed for a second day after a speeding lorry hit and crashed to  death a boda boda operator at the Nice City section.

Irate boda boda operators blocked the busy highway to motorists who were on way back to their respective destinations after New Year celebrations.

According to eye witnesses, the 8 pm Thursday accident saw the boda boda operator's head being chopped off by the angle line of the speeding lorry.

''We cannot continue losing our members in this manner, '' shouted James Gicamu, a boda boda operator at the nearby Ngurubani market.

Gicamu said it was just a few hours to the New Year when they erected bumps at the accident prone spot only for the police to come and destroy leaving the operators vulnerable.

Police from the nearby Wanguru Police station led by the Mwea East Sub-County OCPD Titus Yoma, descended on the rowdy operators whose actions had caused a heavy traffic jam and managed to arrest two of them.

Yoma said only the Kenya National Highway Authority (KENHA), has the mandate to put bumps on the roads and termed the action by the operators as criminal.

Yesterday, Gicamu wondered why the police were not able to prevent the Thursday accident yet it occurred at the very spot they had erected the bumps which were quickly destroyed by the law enforcers.