Elizabeth Makau (left) who lost two daughters both students at Kyoani Mixed Secondary School and Josephine Mulatya who lost a daughter and two grandchildren, as they await post-mortem results of their kids at Mutomo sub-County Hospital.
Elizabeth Makau, a resident of Kyoani in Kitui South, had a routine early morning task of preparing her children to send them to school.
As usual, she was out of bed by 4:30am on Friday. She woke up her two daughters Susan Mueni and Brigitte Vaati, and prepared their breakfast as the two were taking a bath.
The two sisters who were both day scholar students at Kyoani Mixed Secondary School, left their home at 5:20am for the four-kilometre journey to their school.
Ordinarily, it's a 40-minute walk from home to school, and by 6am, the children would have joined fellow students for a morning study session.
However, this was not an ordinary day.
That Friday morning was the last their mother saw them alive. The two siblings never reached school, they were killed by a speeding hit-and-run vehicle, near Kyoani market, along the Kitui-Kibwezi Road.
Susan, who was in Form Three and her younger sister Brigitte in Form One, were in the company of their four cousins, including three primary school children.
All six students were killed on the spot, throwing three families, into deep mourning.
Heartbreaking news
Moments after the accident, Mrs Makau, a mother of five, got a shocking telephone call from a neighbour informing her that some students had been injured in an accident and she needed to rush to the scene.
"I trembled and sensed something had terribly gone wrong, and immediately I got up and headed to the scene," she told the Nation while fighting back tears.
Upon reaching the scene, she found a crowd gathered, some people wailing loudly. Her worst fears were confirmed when she spotted her daughters lying lifeless meters apart, in pools of blood.
Shocked and speechless at the sight of the bodies of her children who less than an hour earlier were full of joy and life, Mrs Makau could not believe the turn of events.
As friends and neighbours comforted her, she found that her neighbour and relative Josephine Mulatya had lost three kids - her last born Grade Six girl and her two grandchildren—in the same tragic accident.
Mrs Mulatya was too traumatised to speak but her brother Pastor Dennis Nyamai blamed the needless deaths on careless driving saying the kids were not crossing the road but were walking along the pavement reserved for pedestrians.
At the scene, other students waited impatiently as six of their schoolmates' bodies lay lifeless along the road.
The school's Principal Michael Karanja excused those who were emotionally affected from attending lessons.
After the six bodies were collected by police, the two neighbouring schools - Kyoani Primary School and Kyoani Mixed Secondary School, conducted their Friday morning assembly at the accident scene, where teachers and some pastors who joined counseled students and held prayers.
According to Kitui County Police Commander Leah Kithei, the six students were walking to school from their homes when a Toyota Probox car coming from Kibwezi veered off the road and hit them.
"The Toyota Probox registration was travelling from Kibwezi to Kitui. On reaching Kyoani area, the driver hit six pedestrians who were school children walking on the pavement,” Ms Kithei explained.
As a result, all the children died on the spot, she said.
Ms Kithei said the driver of the Probox - a primary school teacher tried to escape by fleeing the scene but he was apprehended by police and placed in custody at Mutomo Police Station.
His vehicle was also impounded.
"It is very sad losing such young children. The driver will be arraigned in court on Monday to face charges of causing death by dangerous driving," the police commander told journalists after visiting the accident scene.
Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua was among the leaders who visited the families to console them.
Mr Wambua urged the Kenya National Highways Authority to relook at the design of the Kyoani road section and see what safety measures can be taken including putting speed bumps to stop the carnage.
