Nairobi.- At least 52 people died after a truck carrying a trailer hit several pedestrians and vehicles on a road in western Kenya, the Police confirmed to EFE today.
“Yesterday 49 deaths were confirmed at the scene and three later succumbed to their injuries at the hospital,” Resila Onyango, a spokesman for the Kenyan Police, told EFE.
The accident took place around 6:30 p.m. local time (15:30 GMT) on Friday at the Londiani junction in Kericho County.
The Kenyan Minister of Roads and Transport, Kipchumba Murkomen, visited this Saturday the scene from which he testified that the truck involved in the accident was not Kenyan-owned, but registered in Rwanda.
“It is difficult to know now if the truck was roadworthy as we will have to involve the Rwandan government in this matter,” the minister said.
Murkomen also assured that he will give indications so that the roads are designed in such a way that space around it for open markets in a country where it is customary, as in many other places in Africathat small merchants situate themselves to their sides to sell their products.
According to the regional commissioner of the Rift Valley, where Kericho is located, Abdi Hassan, 30 people were also injured in the accident.
Kenyan media reported last night, however, that more than sixty people were rushed to different hospitals in that county and neighboring Nakuru.
The president of Kenya, William Ruto, affirmed on Friday through the social network Twitter that “The country is in mourning with the families who have lost their loved ones in a terrible traffic accident”.
Ruto stressed that “it is devastating that some of the fatalities are young people with a promising future and businessmen who carried out their daily chores” and asked the drivers “be more cautious on the roads, especially now that we are experiencing heavy rain”.
The truck driver apparently lost control and ran over pedestrians, shopkeepers and matatus (collective transport vans) who were parked on the side of the road, according to eyewitnesses.
