Death trailed church women to Tanzania

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PHOTO | STEPHEN MUDIARI | NATION Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka chats with Ms Olive Gathoni when he visited the victims at Kenyatta National Hospial in Nairobi on August 11, 2012. 

By JOY WANJA MURAYA jwanja@ke.natiomedia.com and OLIVER MUSEMBI osembi@gmail.com
Posted  Saturday, August 11  2012 at  23:30

IN SUMMARY

• The lay missionaries had initially planned to go to Uganda but changed plan after outbreak of killer Ebola

They wailed for help, wondering why the tragedy struck this day – not once, but twice. And that, in a foreign land.

Though the events of the fateful night remain hazy to some of the survivors, two things remain edged in the minds of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) Women’s Guild members; a loud bang and desperate screams for help.

Eighty-four mothers from six Presbyterian churches in Thika Parish were travelling for a week-long gospel mission to Dar es Salaam when calamity struck killing 12 of their members.

The accident occurred on Mandela Bridge in Chelinze area at around 5 a.m. on Friday.

“I was in the first bus that was involved in an accident and we called our colleagues in the second bus to park by the road to rescue us,” Ms Olive Gathoni,77, told Sunday Nation on Saturday at Kenyatta National Hospital.

We left the first bus and walk to the second one to take us to hospital and after we had boarded, a truck rammed our bus and it overturned, she added.

“I opened the window then I squeezed out to save the other women,” she says of her narrow escape.

However Ms Gathoni said locals who came to the scene first were reluctant to help those trapped under the wreckage as they demanded to be paid.

“You are our sons and brothers please help us then we will pay you when we get our handbags,” Ms Gathoni remembers her plea.

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“This accident will not deter me from professing my faith in God,” she said, adding each of the members had paid Sh10,000 for the trip.

Survivors were on Friday night evacuated to Nairobi by the Kenyan military following an order by President Kibaki. They were taken to Kenyatta National Hospital.

The hospital’s chief executive Richard Lesiyampe told journalists that they received 66 patients. Most were treated and discharged on Saturday.

“Most patients in the Emergency ward 42, have soft tissue injuries, fractures, neck injuries, minor wounds and scratches and injuries on the lower and upper limbs,” Mr Lesiyampe said.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka sent messages of condolence to the families of the victims and wished the injured quick recovery.

“These are difficult moments for us and especially the families of those who had gone to preach the word of God,” Mr Musyoka said when he visited the patients in hospital.

At the Kenyatta University Funeral Home, relatives and colleagues of the deceased were overcome with grief as they identified the bodies on Saturday.

Eleven bodies had been identified by 3.30 p.m yesterday, among them Mrs Zipporah Gachau who was the Women’s Guild chairlady. Others were Charity Muthoni Ndaba, a teacher at Joytown Primary School and her colleague Mary Mukami. John Kamau, a teacher at Kiganjo school lost his wife, Sarah Nyokabi and his sister Ms Mukami.