Twenty three people died after a bus load of choristers heading to a wedding veered into a river in Kutui County, Kenya on Saturday. Mwingi East Sub-County Police Commander Joseph Yakan said 18 people were rescued.
The accident occurred after the driver carrying choir members of Mwingi Catholic Church tried to steer the bus past a flooded bridge, however, the strong current swept the vehicle into the river.
Onlookers screamed as the yellow school bus hired to take a church choir and other revelers to the ceremony in Kitui County keeled over and sank as the driver tried to navigate the surging waters. Some aboard the ill-fated bus managed to escape before the bus submerged, and were helped to safety.
“We have this terrible, terrible accident that happened here this morning,” Kitui governor Charity Ngilu told reporters. “The bodies that have already been retrieved right now are over 23. We have more bodies in the bus,” she said, adding that efforts to recover the corpses would resume on Sunday morning.
She said 18 people had been rescued from the bus mishap, including four children. It remains unclear how many passengers were aboard the bus when it dipped into the Enziu River, about 200 kilometres east of the capital Nairobi.
Witnesses said the driver had stopped to negotiate the river and was close to the other side when the bus was swept beneath the churning currents. Deputy President William Ruto was among those to extend his condolences, and also urged motorists to apply extra caution on the roads with many parts of Kenya experiencing heavy rain.