Mr Jotham Nyongesa recalls the last conversation he had with his wife on Monday afternoon, with painful clarity.
She had called to tell him that their children had been sent home from school over unpaid fees, and he had assured her that he would handle the matter the following day when he returned home.
At the time, it seemed like an ordinary and routine family conversation, one of many they had shared before. Neither of them knew it would be their last.
Nyongesa, a father of four and a driver with Naitiri Sugar Company, continued with his routine duties, expecting to return home the next day to resolve the issue.
But later that evening, his phone rang again. It was a text message, and it was alarming.
A relative informed him that his nephew, Gravin Mundia, had been involved in a bodaboda accident near Malaha junction along the Kitale-Webuye highway, not far from their village.
Without hesitation, Mr Nyongesa rushed to board a matatu heading towards home. While still on the journey, another call came through, this time bearing far worse news.
The accident scene he was rushing to had become the site of a much more serious tragedy after a truck reportedly rammed into a crowd of people who had gathered near the roadside, injuring more than twenty.
Jotham Wekesa Nyongesa, the widower of Alice Kadogo Kinisu, who died in a road traffic accident on the Webuye-Kitale road in Bungoma County on Monday night, shows her photograph during an interview at his home in Mwinami Village, Webuye, on March 10, 2026. Two motorbikes collided before a truck ran over onlookers and rescuers, killing 15 people.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya I Nation
Confused and anxious, he arrived at the scene and jumped out of the matatu before it had even come to a complete stop and rushed towards the gathering crowd along the roadside.
The sight before him was chaotic. People were scattered across the roadside, some crying for help while others lay on the ground, motionless. In the confusion, Mr Nyongesa pushed his way through the crowd, desperately searching for his nephew.
As he moved closer, he recalls passing a body lying by the roadside, but in the confusion, he did not stop to look closely, only expressing shock at how badly damaged it was.
“I saw my nephew lying in a ditch, and I rushed to lift him, hoping that he was still breathing, but he was gone,” he recalled.
Seconds later, as he was processing the tragic demise of his nephew, villagers approached him quietly and began offering their condolences, a gesture that immediately deepened his worry.
“I asked them why they were consoling me,” he recalls.
What they told him next left him stunned. They informed him that his wife was among the people who had died in the second accident, pointing him towards the very badly injured body he had just passed moments earlier.
He rushed back to the body in disbelief, struggling to believe what he had just heard and what he was seeing. The face looked familiar, but his mind struggled to accept the truth.
Slowly, he bent down and carefully checked the hair, the clothes, and the hands, confirming that the body was indeed that of his wife, Ms Alice Kadogo.
Overwhelmed by grief, he broke down.
A section of the road at Malaha on the Webuye–Kitale road in Bungoma County where 15 people were killed, after two motorbikes collided and a truck ran over onlookers and rescuers on March 10, 2026.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya I Nation
It is at this point that he learnt about the details. What began as a boda boda accident involving his nephew, a pillion passenger, drew concerned relatives to the scene near Malaha junction quickly turned into a far deadlier tragedy when a truck driver lost control and ploughed into the crowd, killing 14 people on the spot and seriously injuring others.
Within seconds, the roadside gathering turned into a scene of chaos as people screamed and scattered while others lay motionless on the ground.
The 15th person died in the hospital. Most of the victims were relatives from Mr Nyongesa’s clan in Mwinami village, Webuye East, Bungoma County.
Like other relatives, his wife, 48-year-old Kadogo, had rushed to the accident scene together with their daughter-in-law, after hearing that her nephew had been involved in a boda boda accident.
Tragically, she became one of the victims of the Monday night tragedy, after the truck killed her on the spot.
A view of Webuye Weighbridge in Bungoma County on March 10, 2026, at around 1am, where the truck that ran over people responding to the collision of two motorbikes on Monday night was towed to.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya I Nation
Their daughter-in-law survived the crash but remains hospitalised and is currently fighting for her life in the intensive care unit at Webuye Sub-County Hospital.
Across Mwinami village, the impact of the Monday night accident is visible in nearly every direction. The grief stretches further within Mr Nyongesa’s extended family and affects several households of the Balonji clan in Mwinami village, a quiet rural settlement in Webuye East.
Within a small stretch of homes, families are mourning relatives killed in the crash and preparing for burials, while others are anxiously waiting for news about the injured still admitted and receiving treatment in the hospital.
On Friday, five of the 17 patients admitted to Webuye Sub-county referral hospital following a grisly accident that claimed 15 lives have been discharged.
The hospital medical superintendent, Dr David Wanikina, said one patient has been referred to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) for specialised treatment, while 11 others, still admitted at the facility, are responding well to treatment.
"The patient needs neurosurgical treatment and had to be referred to the MTRH in Eldoret," said Dr Wanikina.
The 15 perished after they were involved in an accident near Malaha on Monday along the Webuye-Kitale highway.
Mass prayers will be held on Monday for the 14 victims after one of them, a Muslim, was buried on Tuesday.
Just a few metres away from Mr Nyongesa’s home, his brother, Mr Alfred Wanyonyi, a community elder and spokesperson of the Balonji clan, is also grieving his son Godwin Wanyonyi, 29.
Alfred Wanyonyi Wanyama, (left), father of the late Godwin Wanyonyi, who is also a cousin of Gravin Fundia, who were both killed following an accident at Malaha on the Webuye-Kitale road in Bungoma County on Monday night, during an interview at his home in Mwinami Village, Webuye, on March 10, 2026.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya I Nation
We found him quietly milking his cow, pausing occasionally to wipe tears that streamed down his face. Inside the house, his wife was still wailing in disbelief, unable to contain her grief.
Earlier that evening, the clan elder had spent time with his son, Godwin, before seeing him off as they said goodnight.
Later that night, he received a phone call informing him that his nephew, Gravin, had been involved in a bodaboda accident along the highway near Malaha.
Before he could even make his way to the scene, another call came through, this time informing him that his son, Godwin, had also been killed.
Confused and struggling to understand what had happened, the clan elder would later learn that his son had also rushed towards the accident scene after hearing that his cousin Gravin had been involved in the crash.
At the home of John Khisa Fundia, Gravin’s father, the compound is equally heavy with sorrow. In a single tragic night, he had lost both his son and his pregnant wife, Emily Angela Namukuru, and several relatives.
We found him sitting quietly, visibly shaken and struggling to comprehend the scale of the loss that had struck not just his household but his entire clan.
Mr Fundia lost his son, Gravin,27, in the initial accident involving a bodaboda, and his expectant wife, who had rushed to the scene after hearing the news. She died on the spot.
“I feel like I am dreaming. How can I lose my wife, my unborn child, and my son all in the same night? He said quietly, holding one of his surviving four children.
For the residents of Mwinami, a Luhya name loosely translated as ‘humbled,’ the village has indeed been humbled by the scale of the tragedy.
Ordinarily, in moments of tragedy and grief, villagers and relatives would gather to comfort one another in moments of tragedy. But this time, the entire village is paralysed with grief, as the loss has touched nearly every household.
As preparations for multiple funerals begin, families are still struggling to understand how a single road accident could escalate into such a devastating chain of events, bringing such devastating loss to an entire community.
Neighbours gather quietly in small groups, sharing fragments of the events that unfolded that night, each conversation returning to the same question: How did a single accident turn into a disaster affecting so many families?
The sombre atmosphere has been intensified by Luhya mourning traditions, which require bereaved families to remain indoors during mourning.
As a result, families living only a few metres apart are unable to visit one another to share their grief.
“As an elder who has lost a wife, I cannot cross to my brother’s homestead to mourn the loss of his son. According to our customs, every member of a bereaved household must remain indoors until the mourning rituals are complete,” elder Nyongesa explained.
The custom has left the village unusually quiet. Homes that would normally be filled with neighbours offering condolences now remain largely closed, with grieving families mourning in isolation.
