On Saturday, April 8, more than eight people, including the unfortunate truck driver, were killed when the truck lost control and slammed into a boda boda parking space in Migori County on the Migori-Isibiania route. The truck was carrying rice to the border town of Isebania at the time of the accident.
According to multiple sources, the driver lost control of the truck along the highway and began honking in the Chamkombe region, signaling a brake failure, before striking many people in the crowded town and critically injuring three.
Witnesses said that the truck’s driver lost control and the vehicle slammed into pedestrians, cars, and boda boda riders before hitting a truck transporting sand, forcing it to stop.
“We saw the lorry speeding into town, and it crashed passers-by, motorists, and boda boda riders as it went down the hill.
“It then rammed into a lorry with sand, forcing it to stop. If the lorry without sand weren’t in that spot then the lorry with rice (which lost control) would have killed more,” an eyewitness recounted.
Other witnesses told Citizen Digital that two people were knocked down at River Migori, but efforts to save them were unsuccessful since the river was deemed impassable.
They added that the town’s parking spaces had been poorly managed by the Migori County government and that the road needed a proper structure to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Confirming the incident, Migori County Police Commander Mark Wanjala said that investigations had already commenced to establish the cause of the accident.
Meanwhile, being a lorry transporting rice, residents of the town took advantage of the situation and rushed to the scene to loot the rice.
Among the leaders that sent their condolences is Azimio la Umoja leader, Raila Odinga.
“I offer my deepest sympathies to all those who have lost their loved ones, friends, and colleagues in the tragic accident that occurred this morning at the boda boda stage in Migori town. May God grant you all fortitude to get through this difficult moment,” he wrote.
