In Kenya, the Garissa-Nairobi motorway, currently weakened by flooding, narrowly escaped a massacre. A total of 51 passengers on a bus were suspended 30 metres from the Tana river bridge before being rescued by civil defence.
On the morning of 9 April 2024, 51 passengers had a near-death experience on the Garissa-Nairobi motorway as they travelled calmly to get back to their work and their families. Their transport bus was literally swept away by the waters of the Tana River (Kenya’s largest at 708 km), whose flooding caused a dam to burst upstream.
According to the 51 survivors rescued by the Kenyan Civil Defence, the incident could have been avoided if the driver, Hassan Rage (who is missing), had not persisted in driving straight into the storm against their will and the latest weather warnings issued by the local authorities. For the time being, official rescue teams, with the support of local residents, are taking it in turns to try and recover the vehicle, which is still stuck 30 metres from the river bridge.
“These are sections that were damaged by the El Niño phenomenon and must be avoided at all costs when they are flooded. The aim is to avoid endangering lives on this road. Transgression of this prohibition is an offence punishable under the law in force”, Ali Ndiema, the Tana River County Police Commander, told the Associated Press.
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Kenya, which ended 2023 with deadly floods, like neighbouring Somalia and Ethiopia, would never have recovered if the 51 passengers had lost their lives in this accident. Last November’s episode killed 111 people in the Horn of Africa, notably in the Kenyan town of Garissa, where people lost their watermelon fields and livestock.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
