A bus carrying mourners home from a funeral in Kenya crashed into a ditch, killing at least 25 passengers, with the driver accused of speeding and losing control
A 10-year-old girl is among 25 people who have tragically died after a bus carrying them back from a funeral crashed in Kenya.
The mourners were returning back from a service in the southwest of the country when it overturned and plunged into a ditch on Friday evening. The bus was travelling from the western town of Kakamega to the city of Kisumu, where the accident happened. There have been several people injured as well as the confirmed 25 that have died.
The driver lost control of the bus as it approached a roundabout at high speed and plunged into a ditch, according to Peter Maina, a regional traffic enforcement officer for the province of Nyanza, where Kisumu is located. He said there was a girl, aged 10, among the victims as well as 10 men and 10 women but that figure has now risen. It comes after a woman, 20, was found dead on a bus with 26 iPhones glued to her body.
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Four of the 29 people injured in the crash later died in the hospital, said Fredrick Ouma Oluga, the principal secretary in charge of medical services in Kenya. The crash has shocked many in the region, sparking renewed calls for tougher road safety measures.
Road accidents are common in Kenya and the wider East African region, where roads are often narrow and in poor condition with many potholes. Police often blame road accidents on speeding drivers.
In another accident on Thursday, nine people were killed in a bus crash in the town of Naivasha in the county of Nakuru. The victims were among 32 workers going to work when the bus crashed at a railway crossing, police said.
Meanwhile, a plane crash yesterday has left at least six people dead and two others injured after it went down in a residential area in Ruiru, Kiambu County, Kenya.
The aircraft, a Cessna Citation XLS, belonged to AMREF Flying Doctors, which provides “fixed-wing air ambulance services” in Africa. It is not yet clear what caused the crash. Four people were onboard the plane at the time.
The deceased include two doctors, two nurses and two members of public, according to the Kiambu County Commissioner. “At this time, we are cooperating fully with relevant aviation authorities and emergency response teams to establish the facts surrounding the situation,” AMREF Flying Doctors CEO Stephen Gitau said.
The Cessna took off from Wilson Airport in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi at 2:17pm and was on its way to Hargeisa, Somalia when it crashed. The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said the aircraft lost radio and radar contact three minutes after it took off from Wilson Airport. Multiple homes were damaged near the crash site, which has a radius of around 100 metres.