According to history, the bridge at River Enziu in Mwingi’s Kitui county is not your average bridge during rainy seasons.
Apparently, the poorly made bridge which has high affinity for human life has continued to thrive year in year out despite swallowing many lives at the same spot.
In 2018, River Enziu bridge swept a public service vehicle carrying passengers on board with sources reporting that a number of people lost their lives with very few managing to survive.
The same year, four bodies of people who drowned at the notorious River Enziu in Kitui County were found trapped inside the car they were traveling in.
A mangled wreckage of a Toyota Probox they were travelling in was found buried 10 metres underneath the river bed after 22 days of relentless search by emergency agencies.
The victims who were two women and two young men had gone missing on April 16 after their car was swept away by the swollen River Enziu, only to be traced two weeks later.
According to County community liaison officer David Mbisi, the bodies were found about 100 metres downstream from the river’s bridge after days of excavating its bed.
“The grieving families and search teams did a lot of work, initially concentrating along the river banks, only for the bodies to be found hidden beneath the river,” the county officer said.
The victims are said to have left Nairobi in the morning in a taxi hired by one of them Judith Ndunge, to attend the burial of her sister-in-law at Nuu Village in Mwingi.
Later the next year, River Enziu in 2019 swept a Toyota Land cruiser that was carrying medical supplies before it swept another saloon car in 2020.
Fast-forward into 2021, River Enziu has again swallowed more citizens with 24 dying on the spot as rescue operations go on in a bid to trace the rest.
According to a video in possession of Sonko News, the bus was trying to maneuver its way out of a swollen river before it plunged into the water.
The bus then started drowning with only one person managing to get out of the window as the others struggled inside it helplessly.
A top source which spoke to Sonko News reporters in Mwingi revealed that the driver had waited for more than 2 hours with the hope that the water would reduce so that they could cross peacefully.
Further, the passengers had seen two more vehicles cross the accident scene and wondered why their own driver was reluctant to do the same.
As a result, some passengers who could not stomach camping there and being late insisted that they had to cross with others saying twendeni tu Mungu yuko.
“One of the survivors said the passengers are the ones who insisted, the driver told them he is not familiar with the bridge but wakakataa ati they are being late.” Said a source.
So annoying was this act by the bus driver after murdering innocent people in River Enziu that Kenyans had the following to say:
“This is what happens when a driver makes poor risk assessments on the road. One of the reasons for this is when you pay out money to receive DL without attending for classroom training in order to cut costs. I always believe there’s a difference between a driver who attended real classes and another one who did it practically through friends and subsequently paid some little cash only to receive a driving licence. These 2 drivers can never make same judgements on the road.Let’s be careful on the roads, we all have one life to live.”
“Careless drivers have always risked lives of passengers. So unfortunately in a blink of an eye lives were lost. The passengers too need to learn to stand for themselves and voice out. Unfortunately this is Kenya where discuss start after tragedy and after few days all will be forgotten. May their souls rest in peace.”
“What’s the logic behind this type of bridges? Why don’t we have better bridges that allow people to pass even during rains? May the departed rest in eternal peace. ?”
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