Police despair as notorious Ihindu-Kinungi blackspot keeps claiming lives

Mary Muthoni sits despondently at her gate, her eyes distant. About 15 metres to her left is her son John Mwangi’s fresh grave. The wreath of flowers on it has not dried up. He had just been buried the day before the Nation chanced upon her in Ihindu village.

At only 24, Mwangi was her main helper at her vegetable business at Ihindu market, barely 100 metres from their home. He was hit by a car while talking to his stepfather a few weeks ago.

The car, witnesses say, was speeding when the driver swerved to avoid hitting an oncoming lorry while overtaking. It landed squarely on the unsuspecting young man, who died a day later at Nakuru General Hospital.

Ihindu market is a blackspot. In two weeks, a record four crashes have happened at the exact spot, killing seven people. Residents are tired. Despite protesting almost weekly, a speed bump and a flyover have not been installed at the sharp bend near the market.

“We have lost many people at this exact spot where my son was killed. I have no strength. He was my pillar ever since his father died when he was a young boy,” Ms Muthoni says.

“The government has refused to heed to our call. Just while we were mourning my son, another accident occurred, killing another man at this same place.”

The day before her son died, three people were killed by a car whose driver lost control at the exact spot. Residents, frustrated by the government’s inaction, had put up a temporary dirt bump, which was already eroding when the Nation visited the area.

Five kilometres from Ihindu is another blackspot: Kinungi.

Ann Mawia, a roadside vegetable seller, says she can never let her child go to school on the other side of the road for the simple reason that she fears for his life.

“I am not sure I can bear the news of my son’s death simply because I took him to school on that other side,” she says, pointing to a school barely 50 metres away.

This, she explains, is because she has seen many people, including children, being hit and dying right before her eyes.

“We are used to the abrupt screams of locals when an accident happens. You just walk around Kinungi centre hoping you will get back home alive in the evening,” says Rahab Gathoni, a resident of Kinungi.

“A simple crossing to even go buy something from the other side of the road could be your death any day.”

Their concerns are genuine. On June 25, as Safari Rally cars sped past Kinungi, something happened. Amid the excitement and joy, 12-year-old Dickson Kimani, sent by his mother to open the doors for her younger siblings returning home from school, was crushed on the road.

A personal car, hot on the heels of the passing Safari Rally cars hit him, witnesses say. He was rushed to Naivasha Sub-County Hospital and put on oxygen before being transferred to Nakuru General Hospital. He died a day later.

“At times I blame myself for my son’s death. Had I not sent him that day, he probably would still be alive. I heard screams, I rushed to the scene, only to be held by people who saw me. They informed me that my son had been hit,” Rose Wanjiru, popularly known as Mama Joyce, says tearfully.

Three days later, another child, aged 14 and about to join Form One, was hit barely 100 metres from where Kimani met his death. He died on the spot. His body could not withstand being hit by a lorry.

Police data shows that at least 150 people perished on the Kinungi-Naivasha-Gilgil toll station stretch of the Nairobi-Nakuru highway between 2017 and 2019. The latest police records list Kinungi as one of the deadliest blackspots in the Rift Valley.

NTSA data for 2020 ranked Nakuru County as the third most dangerous on road safety, accounting for 280 deaths that year. 

Kinungi elder Joseph Njenga says that because the town is the busiest on the deadly stretch from Viewpoint to Naivasha, many accidents are said to happen there. But locals know that Ihindu is the most lethal spot, ahead of Kinungi.

“Those of us who know the difference between the two towns, know that Ihindu is always referred to as Kinungi even in the mainstream media. Ihindu is very dangerous. But that does not mean Kinungi is safe, far from it, both towns are deadly,” he says.

Police are overwhelmed by the road crashes in the area, said an officer based in Kinungi, who did not want to be named.

“We are constantly carrying bodies from accident scenes. Not just of human beings, there are also very many animals being killed on this road on a daily basis,” the officer says,

“Locals protest nearly every week that we no longer bother controlling them when they do. This is because their anger is justified, but what can we do? Only the national and county governments can decide to make this road safer.”

Other than claiming lives and maiming hundreds, healthcare workers feel the spillover effect of the road carnage.

So frequent are the accidents that Naivasha Sub-County Hospital board chairperson Dr Simon Kanyingi in February this year said they were working on a policy framework that would see accident victims sent to larger hospitals.

This statement came just a few days after two people died and another 27 were injured in two separate road accidents on the busy highway and were taken to the hospital.

The first happened in Naivasha, where a truck driver lost control near Milimani Primary School and hit four vehicles and a few pedestrians, including students. Seventeen were injured and rushed to the hospital. One died while receiving treatment and the rest were admitted.

While medics were attending to the injured from the first accident, another crash happened involving three vehicles in Kinungi. Twelve people were injured and rushed to the same hospital.

The second accident involved a personal car whose driver was overtaking and hit an oncoming matatu and a military van. One victim succumbed to injuries in hospital.

Dr Angeline Ithondeka, the superintendent of the hospital, said road accident victims had overwhelmed the trauma and emergency centres in the Level Four hospital. She attributed the spike in accidents in the weeks before December to the relaxation of travel regulations and bans.

Though travel was limited by the ban on movement in some areas in the country because of Covid-19, NTSA data released last November showed that 3,114 people had died on Kenyan roads last in 2020, a significant increase from the 2,942 deaths registered in 2019.

At least 1,108 pedestrians, 275 drivers, 424 passengers, 350 pillion passengers, 73 pedal cyclists and 884 motorcyclists had perished by the time the report was released.

Reckless driving, dangerous overtaking, drunk driving, drunk walking, drunk riding, and failure to use helmets, among other factors, were blamed for the increase in road crashes.

To reduce death rates on Kenyan roads, NTSA said when it issued the report in November last year that it had adopted measures to address road safety concerns and reverse the worrying pattern.

The measures included road safety mainstreaming in ministries, departments and agencies, which is implemented through the Government Performance Contracting.

“As a result of this process, 429 government agencies have since put in place road safety policy guidelines as part of their day-to-day operations,” the agency said.

NTSA also said it was rooting for improved engagements with county governments through the County Transport and Safety Committees (CTSCs).

Speaking to reporters in March this year, government spokesperson Cyrus Oguna said 710 people perished between January and February alone this year. This was a sharp increase from the 562 deaths recorded over the same period in 2019. 

“Comparing the numbers of road accident cases between January and February 2020 and the same period in 2021, there is an increase of 148 cases,” Mr Oguna said.

He said people breaking road rules would face the law and pay stiffer penalties. He called out the Judiciary for showing leniency on traffic offenders, saying the penalties were not tough enough to curb the carnage.

“Traffic police and the Judiciary have been instructed to be more firm, strict and decisive with road safety violations and the Judiciary is urged to be uncompromising with Highway Code breakers by making them face the law and pay stiffer penalties,’ he said.

He urged road users to be patient and advised passengers not to cheer for speeding drivers but instead report them to police. 

Despite the tough talk and promises from the government and its agencies that road safety would improve, the neatly tarmacked bloodthirsty stretch snaking through the Rift Valley continues to claim more lives.