A family in Vihiga County is mourning nine relatives who died in a road accident in Webuye on Monday night.
A total of 19 people died in the accident at Kamukuywa bridge along the Webuye-Kitale road.
A heavy cloud is hanging over Mahanga village, some five kilometres from Vihiga Town, as villagers struggle to come to terms with news of the tragedy.
The accident happened when a matatu the victims were travelling in crashed into a truck transporting sugar cane. The truck had been involved in another accident and was yet to be towed away. Three salon cars rammed them.
Those who died included a seven-year-old boy.
Wycliffe Kegode, the eldest son in the family, is consumed by grief after losing his wife and two children.
Kegode also lost his sister, a brother, nephew, a niece and sister-in-law in the horrific crash.
The family members were returning from a reunion at their sister’s home in Matunda, Kitale in Trans Nzoia County. They had been accompanied by two other relatives, a neighbour and a family friend.
Kegode, who was in another car together with his brother George Oguso said he tried to reach the victims to warn them about the danger, five minutes after they drove past the truck, but he could not reach them.
Poor network
“We were ahead of the matatu carrying our relatives by about three kilometres. We missed the truck by sheer luck. I tried calling them to warn them about the truck without reflectors at a blind spot but I could not reach them because of poor network. Calls were not going through,” Kegode said.
When the calls finally went through, about 15 minutes after they had passed the spot, they went unanswered.
And as fears mounted over what could have happened, there was a call from Kiminini Hospital informing him that two of his nephews had been taken there.
The others, he was told, had been taken to Webuye. Kegode and his brother were shocked to find out only two children in the matatu had survived.
Witnesses told of how six cars were involved in the crash at the bridge between 8.30pm and 10pm.
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At least 14 people died on the spot while the rest perished receiving treatment at a local hospital.
But a resident, Gilbert Wafula, said the driver of the truck transporting cane had slowed down at the spot of another accidentwhen the matatu rammed him from behind.
He said a lorry, transporting maize, had hit another matatu before veering off the road.
“The driver tried to control the lorry but it plunged into the river. The driver died on the spot but two other passengers in the lorry escaped unhurt,” Wafula said yesterday.
“We found the lorry driver lying unconscious but we could not do anything because he was already dead,” he said.