11/02/2007
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From: Nicholas Mireri
Kamgundho Church Choir perishes in a road accident
Her grief is a reflection of a village in anguish — a community that lost nine residents in a horrid road crash. Walking through the busy ruts of the sleepy and tiny Kamgudho village in Rongo District, one senses nothing but a sickening smell of death and misery.
Almost everyone in the village has lost a relative because the residents have strong inter-clan relations. Besides, they attend the same church and their children go to the same school.
The accident on the Rongo-Kisii road last Sunday night not only robbed Kamgudho of its people, but it also nearly brought a church to its knees.
Seven of the dead and the 21 injured were members of Kamgudho Seventh Day Adventist Church. They were returning from a choir competition at Kamagambo College, 30km away, when tragedy struck.
Most of the dead were members of the same family. Church elder, Mr Joseph Odongo Ouko lost his wife Margaret and son, Jim Otieno, a Standard Eight pupil.
He escaped death because he had opted to ride a bicycle home because the accident vehicle was full. His daughter, Lydia Juma, 17, also a Standard Eight pupil at Kamgudho Primary School, and younger brother, Tom Odongo, were seriously injured.
When The Standard team visited his home, Odongo had travelled to the Kisii District Hospital to check on his injured relatives.
Mama Alando, 70, explains: "He left at dawn for Kisii. He will also pass by Apcorn Mortuary in Awendo to ensure Margaret’s body and that of her son are well preserved."
She fights back tears when she recounts her last moments with her son and family on the morning they left home.
"They were in a very jovial mood. I escorted them to the main road. They were very impatient when the vehicle delayed. It now appears they were in a hurry to die," she says.
The grandmother got the news about the accident at nightfall: "I heard someone wailing. I dismissed her as a joker until she came crashing at my gate with the sad news."
Alando says Mrs Odongo, a mother of eight, loved singing in church with her husband and children.
In the neighbouring home, Mr Nicholas Abong’o is mourning the death of two daughters-in-law and one-year-old granddaughter.
His son, Mr Jared Opudo, a church elder, is fighting for his life at the Kisii District Hospital.
A few metres from Abong’o’s home, relatives are making burial arrangements for two other choir members. They are too traumatised to speak.
Kamgudho Primary School has declared a week of mourning. Besides Jim, three other pupils who were in the trip are in hospital. Teachers remember Jim as a bright boy who would have done well in the KCPE examinations later in the month. His sister, Lydia, who is in hospital, is also a candidate.
Church elder John Okello, who was the choir leader, burst into tears as he narrated his miraculous escape from the mangled wreckage.
"I initially sat at the back of the truck, but changed position to sit with the driver after an elder alighted at Rongo. We crashed ten minutes later," he says.
He continues: "We do not know why this has happened to our church, but God has a reason for everything."
We traced Okello at the Kamgudho SDA Church where senior leaders were meeting over the tragedy. A congregation that had gathered at the church to discuss burial arrangements bursts into a song ‘Ne litna ka richona okelo tho’ (I was saddened because my sin has brought forth death), when we arrive.
Okello says he saw the driver of the truck, Mr Andrew Ogumbo, who also hails from Kamgudho, struggle to control the vehicle as they approached a bridge.
"He had been speeding. We saw a bus approach from the opposite direction with headlights on. There was a loud bang, cries for help and then silence," he says.
Six of the victims died instantly when the truck overturned and threw them on the tarmac. Okello said he and the acting church pastor, Mr Johnson Otieno, who sat next to him, pulled themselves out of the wreckage and helped the more critically injured. The pastor is in hospital.
"This is where the choir members used to sit. They were here a day before the accident. Now, I don’t know who will occupy the benches," says Okello as he wipes his tears with the back of his right hand.
Police in Rongo and survivors say the 26 singers and four church elders were returning home after the church function when their pick-up vehicle rammed into the bus at Kanga market at 8pm.
The bus, christened Otange and with a picture of the late Southern Sudanese leader, John Garang, was heading to Nairobi.
The Kisii-Migori road has many accident black spots. It is narrow, pot-holed and frequently used by sugarcane tractors. The tractors, many of which have no headlights, and speeding buses and trailers have turned the road into a motorists’ nightmare.
Migori police chief, Mr Edward Mwamburi, says investigations into the crash had started.
A statement from the Kamgudho SDA Church listed the dead as Margaret Adongo and her son Jim Otieno, Beatrice Ouru, Mary Opudo, Josephine Akomo, Mary Wageci, Alice Anyango, a baby (Cosca Ogayi) and the driver, Ogumbo.
Those still in hospital are Irene Otieno, Jared Opudo, Jared Omondi, Carrey Francis, Isdorah Akinyi, Sharon Awuor, Daniel Omondi, Duncan Onyango, John Owino and Caroline Atieno Opudo.
As we drive out of the village, it is evident that the accident has turned the many homes in-between sugar cane plantations into mourning fields.
=====================================================Kamgundho Church Choir perishes in a road accident
The road accident that claimed a church choir
Published on November 1, 2007, 12:00 am
By John Oywa Wreckage of the ill-fated truck at the Rongo police station.
Picture by Titus Munala
Doris Alando breaks into sobs as she sings the
first stanza of the hymn, This World is not our Home".
Stung by the tragic death of her daughter-in-law and a grandson, she
collapses into a sofa and abruptly ends what had been an emotional prayer.
Clutching a framed photograph of her grandson, she gazes blankly into
the grass-thatched roof and sinks her furrowed brow into a shivering pair
of palms.
Her grief is a reflection of a village in anguish — a community that lost nine residents in a horrid road crash. Walking through the busy ruts of the sleepy and tiny Kamgudho village in Rongo District, one senses nothing but a sickening smell of death and misery.
Almost everyone in the village has lost a relative because the residents have strong inter-clan relations. Besides, they attend the same church and their children go to the same school.
The accident on the Rongo-Kisii road last Sunday night not only robbed Kamgudho of its people, but it also nearly brought a church to its knees.
Seven of the dead and the 21 injured were members of Kamgudho Seventh Day Adventist Church. They were returning from a choir competition at Kamagambo College, 30km away, when tragedy struck.
Most of the dead were members of the same family. Church elder, Mr Joseph Odongo Ouko lost his wife Margaret and son, Jim Otieno, a Standard Eight pupil.
He escaped death because he had opted to ride a bicycle home because the accident vehicle was full. His daughter, Lydia Juma, 17, also a Standard Eight pupil at Kamgudho Primary School, and younger brother, Tom Odongo, were seriously injured.
When The Standard team visited his home, Odongo had travelled to the Kisii District Hospital to check on his injured relatives.
Mama Alando, 70, explains: "He left at dawn for Kisii. He will also pass by Apcorn Mortuary in Awendo to ensure Margaret’s body and that of her son are well preserved."
She fights back tears when she recounts her last moments with her son and family on the morning they left home.
"They were in a very jovial mood. I escorted them to the main road. They were very impatient when the vehicle delayed. It now appears they were in a hurry to die," she says.
The grandmother got the news about the accident at nightfall: "I heard someone wailing. I dismissed her as a joker until she came crashing at my gate with the sad news."
Alando says Mrs Odongo, a mother of eight, loved singing in church with her husband and children.
In the neighbouring home, Mr Nicholas Abong’o is mourning the death of two daughters-in-law and one-year-old granddaughter.
His son, Mr Jared Opudo, a church elder, is fighting for his life at the Kisii District Hospital.
A few metres from Abong’o’s home, relatives are making burial arrangements for two other choir members. They are too traumatised to speak.
Kamgudho Primary School has declared a week of mourning. Besides Jim, three other pupils who were in the trip are in hospital. Teachers remember Jim as a bright boy who would have done well in the KCPE examinations later in the month. His sister, Lydia, who is in hospital, is also a candidate.
Church elder John Okello, who was the choir leader, burst into tears as he narrated his miraculous escape from the mangled wreckage.
"I initially sat at the back of the truck, but changed position to sit with the driver after an elder alighted at Rongo. We crashed ten minutes later," he says.
He continues: "We do not know why this has happened to our church, but God has a reason for everything."
We traced Okello at the Kamgudho SDA Church where senior leaders were meeting over the tragedy. A congregation that had gathered at the church to discuss burial arrangements bursts into a song ‘Ne litna ka richona okelo tho’ (I was saddened because my sin has brought forth death), when we arrive.
Okello says he saw the driver of the truck, Mr Andrew Ogumbo, who also hails from Kamgudho, struggle to control the vehicle as they approached a bridge.
"He had been speeding. We saw a bus approach from the opposite direction with headlights on. There was a loud bang, cries for help and then silence," he says.
Six of the victims died instantly when the truck overturned and threw them on the tarmac. Okello said he and the acting church pastor, Mr Johnson Otieno, who sat next to him, pulled themselves out of the wreckage and helped the more critically injured. The pastor is in hospital.
"This is where the choir members used to sit. They were here a day before the accident. Now, I don’t know who will occupy the benches," says Okello as he wipes his tears with the back of his right hand.
Police in Rongo and survivors say the 26 singers and four church elders were returning home after the church function when their pick-up vehicle rammed into the bus at Kanga market at 8pm.
The bus, christened Otange and with a picture of the late Southern Sudanese leader, John Garang, was heading to Nairobi.
The Kisii-Migori road has many accident black spots. It is narrow, pot-holed and frequently used by sugarcane tractors. The tractors, many of which have no headlights, and speeding buses and trailers have turned the road into a motorists’ nightmare.
Migori police chief, Mr Edward Mwamburi, says investigations into the crash had started.
A statement from the Kamgudho SDA Church listed the dead as Margaret Adongo and her son Jim Otieno, Beatrice Ouru, Mary Opudo, Josephine Akomo, Mary Wageci, Alice Anyango, a baby (Cosca Ogayi) and the driver, Ogumbo.
Those still in hospital are Irene Otieno, Jared Opudo, Jared Omondi, Carrey Francis, Isdorah Akinyi, Sharon Awuor, Daniel Omondi, Duncan Onyango, John Owino and Caroline Atieno Opudo.
As we drive out of the village, it is evident that the accident has turned the many homes in-between sugar cane plantations into mourning fields.
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