A local government official said earlier this week that about 30 people died in central Kenya after a bus carrying passengers fell off a bridge.
The bus plunged some 40 meters into the Nithi River as it crossed a bridge known to be an accident-prone “black spot”, some 50 kilometers from the town of Meru from where it had set off for the port of Mombasa (south-east).
About 20 people died on the spot, four died in hospital and six bodies were pulled from the river the next morning, Tharaka Nithi county prefect Norbert Komora said.
“The search is still on and we are trying to recover the wreckage (…) the investigation is still on to establish the cause of the accident at the Nithi black spot,” he added.
Local media photos show the wreckage of the bus ripped open and seats ejected from the passenger compartment.
The number of deaths on Kenya’s roads has been rising for several years. Between January and June, 1,912 people were killed, compared to 1,754 in the same period last year (+9%), according to the latest figures from the Transport and Traffic Safety Authority (NTSA).