Unspecified number of Ugandans are reported to be among 21 people killed in a Saturday evening road crash involving a Nairobi-bound bus travelling from Mbale District in Uganda.
Patrict Kitau, the Bungoma District Police Commander in Kenya, said the crash that left at least 49 other people seriously hurt, occurred around 8pm in Lwakhaha, Kenyan side 3 kilometer from Uganda-Kenya Border.
According to Kitau, the victims were traveling on a speeding bus Registration Number KCL 850M which belongs to Nairobi Bus Company which had set off from Mbale to Nairobi before the driver lost control and it veered off the road.
He said preliminary investigations revealed that the cause of the crash was overspending.
Kenyan authorities are still establishing the identies of the victims, but majority of them are Ugandans, according to Kitau.
Their bodies are lying at Chepteyis and Lwandanyi hospital mortuaries waiting to be identified by their relatives while the injured are receiving treatment at the same hospitals.
According to an eyewitness, the driver of the speeding bus failed to negotiate a corner before it veered off the road.
“Today (January 7, 2023) there was a fatal road crash involving Nairobi bus registration number KCL 850M at Lwakhakha B in Kenya killing a good number of people. It’s confirmed that among the dead are eight Ugandans,” the Elgon regional Police spokesperson, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rogers Taitika said in a Saturday evening statement.
When contacted on Sunday morning, he said they are still waiting for an update from their Kenyan counterparts on the number of confirmed victims.
“The Kenyan authorities are handling the situation,” he added.