Double tragedy for grieving family after freak accident along Muhoroni-Londiani Road

Erick Onyango nurses his fractured arm at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Referral and Teaching Hospital in Kisumu yesterday, after a road accident that happened while transporting his son’s body to Siaya County claiming his wife's life. (PHOTO: DENISH OCHIENG/ STANDARD)

Erick Onyango braved excruciating pain from his broken arm as he described the final moments of a grisly road accident.

Shifting his heavily bandaged arm and gasping for breath, Onyango gazed around the room, as if searching for his wife, who was burnt beyond recognition.

By the time The Standard on Sunday spoke to him at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral hospital, he had not been told that his wife, Jackline Anyango was no more.

The bodies of his wife and that of his three and a half-year-old son, Smith Gregory Onyango - whose body was being transported to Ugunja in Siaya County for burial when the accident happened are now lying at the Ahero Sub-county Hospital Mortuary, following the Friday evening accident along Muhoroni-Londiani Road.

The vehicle the family had been travelling in, nicknamed ‘Chopper’ veered off the road, tumbled into a ditch at Kandege and burst into flames.

As 11 other passengers, including Onyango, who works in Nairobi, fought to escape the inferno, his wife was being consumed in the fierce fire since the vehicle had fallen on her and she could not escape. Miraculously, the casket bearing the boy’s remains, which was on the vehicle’s carrier fell metres away did not break or catch fire.

It was pain beyond imagination as the 27-year-old man came to terms with the tragedy. “Where is my wife? Did she survive? Where is the body of my beloved son?,” the now widowed father asked, tears welling in his eyes.

Seven other badly injured survivors - all related to Onyango - were rushed to the referral hospital after the accident. Three others were taken to Ahero Sub-county Hospital.

Among those fighting for their lives is Onyango’s eldest son Scanton Samwel, who escaped with a badly burnt and broken leg.

Another survivor, Stephen Oduor, who suffered light burns on the leg, thanked God for his life. “When the vehicle rolled fuel leaked and ran on my legs, which caught fire,” he says.

Mama Anatalia Adede, mother to Lucas Adede, a victim who suffered severe burns, was too shocked to express herself.

But not so for Jemimah Adek, who suffered mild burns round the neck and soft tissue injury also rued the accident. “We got a puncture in Nakuru and sorted it out, then embarked on our journey; all was well until things turned awry in Muhoroni,” she said. When we visited the hospital yesterday, we found the survivors writhing in deep pain as orthopaedic surgeons attended to them.

In some cases, they had performed knee arthroscopy, where a small cut is made in the skin and a tiny camera called arthroscope is inserted to view the joints and check for any deformities before correction. The surgeons, who focused on the emergency needs of the patients worked hard to resuscitate and stabilise the patients. The medics said most of the injured were responding well to treatment.