Two MPs visit victims of Naivasha accident, vow to petition Roads CS

Naivasha

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

K.N.A. - By Mabel Keya – Shikuku

Two Members of Parliament (MPs) from Vihiga County have voiced concern over the rise in the number of accidents along the Nairobi – Naivasha – Nakuru highway leading to loss of many lives.

Vihiga MP; Mr Ernest Kivai Kagesi and the Vihiga County MP Dr. Beatrice Kahai Adagala said they will petition the Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary (CS); Onesmas Kipchumba Murkomen to come to Parliament to explain why the highway has been recording what they termed as usually high number of accidents and propose remedial measures.

Mr Kagesi said the highway has been prone to accidents that have claimed many lives and there is need to get to the root of the matter and end the carnage once and for all.

“We need to know if the highway has structural or whichever problem there is so that we fix it, we cannot continue losing lives,” the MP said.

As the MPs were speaking in Naivasha on Wednesday, Murkomen was appearing before Parliament and announced that he had banned school buses from carrying students at night and directed that all un-roadworthy school and public service vehicles be removed from the road, adding that Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) cameras will be stationed at very black spots on the highway, among other safety measures.

The MPs were speaking in Naivasha on Wednesday when they visited victims of a matatu accident that claimed the lives of five students leaving six others and the matatu driver hospitalized in Naivasha Sub-County Hospital with serious injuries.

On Tuesday, five students of Mbihi Friends Girls` Secondary School in Vihiga County died on the spot and six others and the driver were injured in a horrific road accident at Delamere farm in Naivasha, after a Nissan matatu they were travelling in collided head-on with a lorry along the Nairobi- Nakuru Highway.

Three of the victims have been transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital, while four other victims are still recuperating at Naivasha Sub-County Hospital and are said to be in a stable condition.

The MPs who were accompanied by the school principal Ms Jael Lisamukha promised to help the affected families with the treatment of the victims and burial arrangements for the deceased students.

Some of the fathers of the victims who came to identify the bodies of their daughters at Naivasha Sub- County Hospital Mortuary could not hold back tears as they narrated how they learnt about the deaths of their loved ones.

It’s worth noting that a section of stakeholders had earlier suggested that there is need to upgrade the Naivasha – Nakuru highway from a single carriageway to a dual carriage in order to ease the flow of traffic on the highway and reduce the accidents on this busy highway.

In January this year, Murkomen while speaking in Nakuru said that the government plans to upgrade notorious black spot stretches on the Nairobi- Nakuru-Eldoret highway to help reduce accidents that mainly involve Lorries and public service vehicles by marking and erect of cat-eye reflectors to enhance visibility and also erect road signs among other undertakings.

The process of making the Nairobi – Nakuru highway to a dual carriageway all the way to Mau Summit was initiated during the Uhuru –Kenyatta government in 2019.

In July 2022, African Development Bank committed to pumping Sh18 billion into the project whose total costs was estimated to be Sh.160 billion.

It was to be done under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement with a consortium of contractors undertaking it to recover the costs in 30 years from its users at a designated toll.

On March 30, this year, eighteen (18) Pwani University students and staff died and scores of others were seriously injured when their college bus lost control and rolled before it collided head-on with an oncoming matatu at Kayole area in Naivasha along the Nairobi – Nakuru highway.

Exactly two weeks earlier in the same month of March, four people, among them students who were headed for half-term died and 15 others were seriously injured in multiple accidents involving five vehicles at the Kekopey area along the Gilgil - Nakuru highway.

COURTESY: K.N.A.

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