Police in Nyeri County have launched a manhunt for a truck driver who killed a Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) officer, after overrunning a weighbridge he was manning.
The 3 pm incident took place after the rogue driver defied an order to stop by Police and KeNHA officers manning the Kiganjo station.
According to Nyeri County Police Commander, Benjamin Rotich, the driver decided to flee from the scene, to avoid inspection but in the process ended up ramming the KeNHA booth, killing the officer who was inside.
To avoid arrest, the driver later abandoned the truck after driving for a few kilometres along the Nanyuki-Nyeri road where Police later found it.
“We are informed that the driver of the truck was driving from Nanyuki to Nyeri town, but on reaching the Kiganjo weighbridge near the Brookside milk depot, decided to speed on to avoid inspection by the Kenya National Highway Authority officials. But in his attempt to outmanoeuvre the officers who had packed their vehicle nearby to intercept him, he drove through the KeNHA post and killed the officer inside. A Police officer who was at the scene also sustained injuries and has since been treated and discharged. The body of the deceased has been moved to the Nyeri County Referral Hospital (PGH) mortuary, while the lorry has been towed to the Chaka Police Station, as we pursue the run-away driver,” he said.
Rotich, however, says he is yet to ascertain what was being ferried in the lorry, but would soon receive the report on the matter.
“We are yet to arrest the driver, but we are certain we shall get him, press charges and arraign him in court. The lorry he commandeered as he overran the weighbridge checkpoint is currently in our custody and is part of the evidence we expect to use in our investigations,” explained Rotich.
This week the Government said it will launch a crackdown on traffic law offenders in a bid to curb road accidents that have continued to claim lives across the country.
Speaking in Kisumu West, on Tuesday, Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS), Kithure Kindiki regretted that road accidents in the country have reached an alarming level.
This followed the death of 16 people, Monday, in two separate accidents in which 11 of them were Kenyatta University Public Health students, who were travelling to Mombasa for an academic trip.
The 11 students perished after the Institution bus they were travelling in, lost control and rammed into an oncoming trailer at Maungu,Voi, in Taita Taveta County, along the Mombasa-Nairobi Highway.
Forty-two others sustained various forms of injuries and were later airlifted to Nairobi for specialised treatment.
“On Monday alone, we lost about 16 people in various road accidents. In Voi, Taita Taveta County, we lost more than 12 university students. So many families are undergoing difficult times, some have been forced to sell their land to buy medication for accident victims,” said Kindiki.
“The time has come that as a country, we have to look into this issue of road accidents. We are going to come up with nationwide law enforcement measures against traffic offenses, such as drunk driving, and unroadworthy vehicles and we will be very firm with all road users,” he stated.
The latest data released by the National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA), indicates that at least 649 people have lost their lives in road accidents in Kenya between January and February this year.
In 2023 alone, 4,324 people died in various road accidents across the country with 216 of those fatalities being pedestrians, 109 being passengers, 140 being motorcyclists, 54 being pillion passengers, and 35 being drivers.
Statistics show Kenya loses an average of 3,000 people annually, as a result of road accidents making it one of the leading countries in the world, with the highest road carnage.
