A passenger train enroute to Kisumu from Nairobi slipped off the railway on Saturday morning at around 6am.
The incident occurred when the train, with 250 passengers on board, was approaching Mamboleo junction, just a few Kilometers from the Kisumu railway stations. The front portion of the train is said to have come off the rails thus causing its whole body to derail.
The accident caused a huge traffic snarl up on the Kisumu-Kakamega highway as the train had blocked the road forcing motorists to find alternative routes.
Kisumu Railways OCPD Evans Gitembe however said that none of the passengers was injured.
Kenya Railways has issued an update revealing the cause of the accident. In a statement, Kenya Railways said that the accident was as a result of the heavy siltation at the junction where the railway line intersects with the Kakamega-Kisumu Highway.
“Our locomotive derailed due to heavy siltation at the point the Kakamega-Kisumu road intersects the railway line. This siltation was as a result of the accumulation of waste due to poor drainage and dumping from a nearby road construction site which was washed off by heavy rains that occurred last night, and then settled into the road-railway line intersection,” part of the statement read.
Kenya Railways furter apologized for the standoff and urged road users to use alternative routes to and from the lake city as they work with KenHA to restore normalcy.
“We wish to state that there were no injuries, nor were the passenger caches affected. Kenya Railways is working closely with KenHA to clear the road and bring the situation back to normalcy,” the statement further read.
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