Nine people are nursing injuries after a Ukunda-bound minibus failed to climb the steep hill and overturned at the Likoni-Ferry crossing channel.
According to eyewitnesses, the bus coming from Machakos was obstructed by a fully loaded handcart (mkokoteni) with market products.
The driver of the ill-fated bus successfully steered the vehicle from plunging into the ocean and reversed it back onto the ferry.
Further, they revealed that the vehicle overturned while being reversed and overturned at the ferry’s prow. The passengers on board were evacuated.
According to the Kenya Red Cross Society, seven people were treated at the channel, while two were rushed to the Coast Genera Teaching and Referral Hospital (CPGH) for treatment.
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“The vehicle was moving out of the ferry then suddenly reversed and overturned. We were wailing to get assistance. The children were rescued,” Beatrice Ngesa, a survivor at the CPGH, told Kenya News Agency.
Lucky Samba, an official of Chania Executive Bus, said a mkokoteni obstructed their vehicle, and it slipped and went back into the ferry, overturning at the ferry prow.
Mombasa Governor Abdullswamad Nassir, who visited the accident survivors, said all the passengers with minor injuries were treated and discharged.
Nassir revealed that talks were ongoing with the Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport for the ferries to strictly serve passengers on feet only and vehicles to use the Dongo Kundu bypass.
“It is going to be our proposal and our standing that we are going to put a permanent ban (on vehicles),” he stated.
“The ferry is only a social service. The ferry is not a commercial service that the KPA runs and all human life is valued way more. We would rather have those ferries doing nothing else except passengers on foot.”
On his part, the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) Acting Director Julius Koech assured ferry users that the ferries were safe and that the morning incident was an accident.
“We have been working in very close collaboration with Kenya Ports Authority to ensure that standards are being met and that all the inefficiencies after inspection are being closed. We are even going further to ascertain that the operations of the ferries are safe,” said the KMA Ag. DG.
