Traffic along the busy Uhuru Highway in Nairobi was brought almost to a standstill on the morning of Wednesday, August 19, after a road accident involving a Kenya Prisons bus.
The bus rammed into a handcart otherwise known as mkokoteni near the Bunyala Road junction, flipping the handcart upside down and leaving two casualties lying on the road.
Both the bus and the handcart pushers were heading towards the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD).
The two handcart pushers, who were ferrying large quantities of various fruits, were later confirmed to have died on the spot.
Police arrived at the scene moments after the accident to secure the area and direct traffic flow. The bodies of the deceased was wrapped and taken to a mortuary.
An eye-witness who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke accused the driver of the Prisons bus of reckless driving, claiming he was moving at a high speed.
"The bus was moving really fast. It's like he didn't see the mkokoteni in front and you can imagine the difference in speed so I just heard a loud crash and saw fruits all over and two bodies lying on the road," he revealed.
News of the accident sparked furious reactions from a section of Kenyans who maintained that Kenya Prisons buses were notorious for reckless driving, narrating their own experiences.
Multiple Kenyans claimed to have lost loved ones including relatives and friends to accidents involving the vehicles.
Indeed, several accidents involving Kenya Prisons buses have been reported in recent years fueling the wider debate on how drivers of government vehicles conduct themselves on the roads.
In February, a man and a child died after an accident on Haile Selassie Avenue, Nairobi, involving a saloon car and a Kenya Prisons bus.
The Prisons bus rammed into the saloon car near Kenya Railways Golf Club. The driver of the bus tried to avert the collision but was unable to do so because of the vehicles behind him.
