At least 55 people were killed in a horrific road accident in Londiani, northern Kenya's Kericho County, last night.
The death toll could still rise, as local police confirmed, as more than sixty injured people were transported to the hospital after a tractor-trailer allegedly lost control and ran into a matatu and many people on the roadside, including street vendors.
As reported by national media, according to eyewitnesses, the driver of the truck, after losing control of the vehicle probably due to brake failure, desperately tried to avoid a bus that was parked by the side of the road, but failed to avoid a matatu and people standing nearby along the Nakuru-Kericho highway. To make matters worse, rescue efforts were delayed by the heavy rains that fell on the area in the evening.
This is the most serious accident this year in Kenya and all of East Africa, where tragedies on the roads that occur due to a variety of causes, including high speed and recklessness of drivers, poor vehicle maintenance, and poor upkeep of certain busy arterial roads, cannot be curtailed.