Notorious highway claims hundreds of lives as drivers fall for speeding thrill

By Steve Mkawale and Vincent Mabatuk

The stretch between Nakuru and Salgaa is one of the best to drive on. It is smooth, plain and quickly invites the urge to try that thrilling speed that has seen quite a good number of lives lost on the short distance.

Seven months since Mr Kennedy Chumo lost his entire family on the same stretch, there are more souls to mourn.

Chumo, a prison warder, still agonises over the deaths and believes had it not been for the greed of some people, his family would still be intact.

“I have encouraged myself to soldier on, but that has not been easy. However, I trust that God will take me through all this,” he says.

On January 3, he lost his wife, a daughter, son and nephew in an accident.

Nancy Chepkemoi, 37, her two children Faith Chepkoech, 8, Victor Kimutai, 2, and nephew Collins Kiprotich, 8, died after a matatu they were traveling in nose-dived ten metres down a rocky area.

Speeding downhill

Witnesses said the vehicle was speeding downhill when the driver suddenly lost control of the vehicle and rolled into a quarry section along the notorious Salgaa stretch.

Chumo, also a chaplain at King’ong’o Prison in Nyeri, had celebrated Christmas with his family in Nyeri and left with them on December 27, last year for Nakuru to visit his mother-in-law.

In the accident, 21 people died and 12 others escaped with injuries. The 14-seater public service vehicle was ferrying 33 passengers from Olenguruone to Molo town at the time of the accident.

Seventeen victims died on the spot while the others succumbed to injuries at the Molo District Hospital.

Not a month passes without the road stretch claiming lives. Ironically, there are several traffic officers on the stretch. Part of their work has been to collect bodies immediately an accident occurs.

The stretch between Ngata Bridge and Sachang’wan on the Nakuru-Eldoret Highway is also a black spot.

In the month of July, 10 people died on the stretch. On June 8, another eight lives perished. In May, four others were killed while in March, six people, including two children aged below two years, perished in an accident that involved five vehicles, a kilometre from Salgaa trading centre.

Earlier in January, 31 people died on the notorious stretch, 21 in the accident that had seen a warder become a childless widower and 11 others in a separate accident on the highway.

In January 2009, a fatal accident, just 300 metres from Salgaa Trading Centre, claimed 113 lives.

The victims had rushed to the scene to scoop spilled oil when the tanker that had overturned and leaked the oil burst into flames.

In August 1999, State House Comptroller Wilson Chepkwony was killed in a horrific crash at the Ngata Bridge. He died at the wheel of his red Hyundai saloon car after it collided with a Mercedes Benz at the black spot on the Nakuru-Eldoret Road.

Unfortunately, despite the number of deaths, motorists still speed on the dangerous stretch. The drivers, some young and mostly driving new cars, others old with years of experience behind the wheel, drive like they will never do it again.

More than 100 people have died on “the killer highway” in the past one-year, and well over 3,000 have been injured.

Residents living along the dangerous stretch say since the highway was rehabilitated in 2009, the number of accidents has gone up.

Traffic rules

“It seems the stretch is cursed, not a week passes without an accident happening. Not a month passes without passengers losing lives,” says Ms Lilian Limo, a resident of Ngata.

Police records indicate in the last quarter, more than 30 fatal accidents have been reported. “It shouldn’t be a matter of people having to die for motorists to observe traffic rules and exercise caution on the roads,” says Rongai Traffic Commandant Alex Mumo.

“It’s a two-lane highway for much of its length and there is not much room on the shoulder … so any driver error can have serious consequences,” says Mr Mumo.

All freight into the Western region and the North Rift come by road. And with the Mombasa Port becoming increasingly popular, the volume of traffic on the highway has been going up.

The number of pedestrians hit on the stretch between Naivasha and Salgaa is also worrying, according to the police.

In Naivasha only, since the start of the year, 20 pedestrians have been killed while crossing the highway near the trading centre.

The Kenya Road Cross Society (KRCS) that responds to emergencies along the highway is concerned over the number of accidents on the highway.

Mr John Mwikwabe, the KRCS’s-focal person for Road Safety 10 project, challenges drivers and pedestrians to observe road safety.

So notorious is the A104 Road that even the routine traffic police impromptu crackdowns have not helped improve the situation.

Traffic police interviewed said some sections of the highway were of an unacceptable standard, meaning driver error could have “catastrophic” consequences.

Rundown cars

Many officials also blame a growing number of rundown used cars imported from Europe and Japan, as well as poorly trained drivers, corrupt police and deteriorating roads and bridges for the problem.

Other notable accidents on the Salgaa black spot were the death of the former Makueni District Commissioner, whose official Land Rover collided head-on with a speeding oil tanker.

The late Njenga Karume, who served as Minister for Defence, lost one of his sons in an accident on the highway.

Residents say most accidents are caused by heavy trucks under the control of tired and sleepy drivers.  “The brakes fail whenever the drivers attempt to slow down or stop the loaded trucks,” says Mr James Kariuki, a mechanic at the trading centre.

Mr John Muhindi, another witness, says: “It was better when the road had pot-holes, no one would care to speed.”

Salim Bakari, a matatu driver, says the accidents, especially at Salgaa, are due to the trucks parked along the road, which at times are not well parked, eating up space on the road.

“The truck drivers do not care. They just park and even stop in the middle of the road without warning,” says Mr Bakari.

Bakari says the only way to curb the road carnage on the stretch is for drivers to exercise due care while approaching the stretch. He adds that many people have lost their lives in accidents that could have been avoided.

“It is avoidable but I do not understand why motorists continue risking lives by being reckless. They know this road has killed many and will continue killing many more if we are not cautious,” he says.