A police officer who was among a group that had been deployed to offer security during the funeral of Kenya’s Chief of Defense Forces, Gen. Francis Ogolla, died in a road accident on Sunday, a few meters from the general’s home. Police said Constable Sydney Sarro was on Ngiya-Nyangoma road at Nyangoma shopping centre when the accident happened.
He was in a police vehicle, and he and his colleagues were proceeding with burial coverage of the late Gen. Ogola when he jumped from the said motor vehicle. As a result of the accident, he sustained head injuries and was rushed to Siaya County Referral Hospital, where he died while undergoing treatment.
The body was moved to the same facility morgue, awaiting an autopsy. Gen. Ogolla was buried at a ceremony at his home in an event attended by, among others, President William Ruto. In the same area, a soldier attached to the Kenya Air Force died in a road accident around Nyamonye along Bondo-Usenge Road on Sunday night. Paytone Mitch Opiyo died alongside a motorcyclist, Richard Omondi, after a head-on collision involving two motorcycles, police said.
Siaya County Police Commander Cleti Kimaiyo said the soldier was riding a motorcycle while carrying his brother Felix Opiyo and was heading towards Bondo from Usenge. On reaching the location of the accident, he collided head-on with an oncoming motorcycle. The soldier, who is said to have been off duty, and the other rider both died on the spot.
Police say fatal accidents are on the rise, and reckless driving is among the causes of the trend. Statistics indicate that 32 per cent of road accident fatalities involve boda boda riders, while pedestrians account for 38 per cent of fatalities on Kenyan roads. Recent data from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) shows that at least 1,213 people have been killed in road accidents in the past three months.
Pedestrians account for the largest number of fatalities at 445, followed by motorcyclists at 285 and passengers at 259. According to the data captured between January and April 3, pillion (motorcycle) passengers came in fourth at 103, followed by drivers (99) and pedal cyclists (24).
