A COLLISION between a bus
and truck has killed 11 students from a top Kenyan university and injured
dozens, prompting the government Tuesday to announce investigations into a
"spate of road accidents".
Road accidents are common
in the east African nation, where road conditions are often poor and traffic
regulations violated or ignored.
Although the number of
accidents fell last year, the start of 2024 has seen a rise, according to
official figures.
In the most high-profile
accident, 24-year-old world marathon record holder Kelvin Kiptum lost his life
in a late-night crash on February 11.
The Kenyatta University
students were enroute to the coastal town of Mombasa when the accident happened
on a busy highway Monday at Maungu, 360 kilometres (220 miles) from the capital
Nairobi.
Ten died on impact and
another died later in hospital, police said, adding that 42 people were
seriously injured.
"The driver of (the)
university bus was overtaking a fleet of motor vehicles and as it was raining
heavily, the bus skidded to the right side of the road," the police report
said.
This "prompted the
driver of the truck to avoid head-on collision, hence hitting the left side of
the university bus," it added.
The bus was carrying 58
people on an academic trip.
The injured were taken to
a hospital in the nearby town of Voi, the Kenyan Red Cross said.
"This is
unacceptable," Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said Tuesday,
deploring a "spate of road accidents".
"Investigations are
ongoing to determine the cause of these accidents and appropriate remedial
action shall be taken," he said in a statement.
'Deeply saddened'
Kenyatta University said
it was "deeply saddened" by the accident and had set up a help desk
at the main campus to provide "assistance during this challenging
time".
Seven students have been
airlifted to Nairobi for specialised treatment, Joseph Lelo, chief medical
officer at African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), told AFP.
"We are quite
concerned about their conditions. Some suffered spinal injury, they bled a lot,
and they need urgent surgery."
According to figures by
the National Transport and Safety Authority, 4,324 people were killed and
18,561 injured in 2023 in road accidents in Kenya, down 7.8 percent from the
previous year.
But numbers jumped at the
start of 2024, with 536 people killed between January 1 and February 11, a
five-percent rise over a similar period last year.