The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media
platforms spanning newspaper print
operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The
Standard Group is recognized as a
leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and
international interest.
It is not called shimala bandu (where people perish)for nothing.
The one-kilometer stretch of road from Bishop Stam Pastoral Centre heading to Kakamega along the Kakamega-Webuye road is perhaps the most dangerous stretch in Western Kenya, with an average of two accidents — mostly fatal — per month.
Churches have held crusades to exorcise the area of ‘demons.’ But these prayers seem to just offer a temporary reprieve.
The remains of those who lost their lives at this black spot are often ferried from the Kakamega morgue through this very section of road to their final resting place.
This is done so that relatives can collect the “spirits of the departed lest they call other souls to the world of darkness,” a boda boda rider told The Nairobian.
Stray black chickens wander around the spot, but villagers never grab them for a meal.
“These (black chickens) are thrown away by families whose relatives have died on the spot. They are usually black—only the greedy grab and sell them to backstreet hotels in Kakamega.
These are cooked and sold to unsuspecting patrons, “said a villager at Bishop Stam area who did not wish to be named.
“Shimala bandu gets its name from the deaths that happen there. It’s a name that has been here even before electricity reached the villages.
Banditry was rampant in this area and bumping into a human body on the road was not uncommon.
The area was christened shimala bandu, which loosely translates to, ‘place where people perish,” says EdwinOdanga, a boda boda riderwho plies the road.
On the same route, there is Luandeti and Malava Forest frequented by cane trailers. On the Webuye-Bungoma highway, Kaburengu, long distance trucks have been known to veer off the highway and crush wamama wa nyanya na vitungu.
The same road has Emahondo, Sasala and Emakhwale, where passengers recite prayers, just in case the worst happens.
Western region traffic commander Geoffrey Njogu says as much as there are black spots, there is the underlying fact that 90 per cent of accidents are due to human error.
