At least five people, among them an infant, died after their vehicle was involved in a grisly road crash at Mbaruk area in Gilgil along the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway.
Nakuru County Traffic
Enforcement Officer Allan Ogolla said the Monday evening accident involved
three vehicles, with all the five victims on board one private car.
Police said the driver of
a Toyota Fielder was overtaking a fleet of vehicles but was caught up before he
got back to his lane, colliding head-on with a saloon car.
After the collision, the driver of the Toyota Fielder lost control of the
vehicle and rammed into a trailer, a Mercedes-Benz Actros.
The car was headed for Nairobi
from Nakuru when the accident happened at about 6 pm.
Due to the impact of the clash,
all the five occupants who including a male infant, two female adults and two male
adults, died on the spot.
Their car
also caught fire and was reduced to a shell, police said.
The crash
caused a traffic snarl as the police cleared traffic from both sides
of the highway.
The bodies
were moved to the mortuary pending autopsy and other procedures, while the wreckages
were moved to the local police station.
The accident
increased to 12, the number of people killed in separate accidents on Monday
alone, police said.
They included five passengers, three riders, three pedestrians and a driver.
At least 15
others were left with serious wounds after the accidents. They included ten
riders, seven passengers, four pedestrians and two pillion passengers.
The victims
are in various hospitals, police said.
In one of the accidents, along the Northern
bypass in Nairobi, a speeding car hit and killed a pedestrian as he crossed
the road.
Police said
the pedestrian died on the spot, and the body was moved to the mortuary.
The accident in Gilgil
came days after the government reiterated its commitment to dual the highway
from Rironi in Kiambu County to Mau Summit in Nakuru County to ease the flow of
traffic.
Deputy President Kithure
Kindiki, who graced an empowerment forum for the elderly and vulnerable groups
in Nakuru East on Sunday, said that the project is at an advanced stage.
"We are committed to
ensuring the dualing of the Rironi-Mau Summit Highway with the project set to
kick off in September this year. This will reduce traffic and time taken from
Nairobi to Nakuru and make the route safer," Kindiki told the attendees of
the empowerment forum hosted at Nakuru Boys High School.
The construction is set to
start by September 2025, officials say.
