Speeding matatu kills 70-year old granny at Njomoko.

The situation early Sunday afternoon after angry residents blocked the Thika superhighway following the death of a 70-year old woman who was knocked dead by a speeding matatu as she attempted to cross the road.

A pedestrian was knocked dead at Njomoko area on Sunday afternoon by a speeding matatu along Thika superhighway.

The victim, a female adult aged about 70 years, suffered serious injuries died on the spot.

Confirming the incident, Thika West OCPD Willy Simba said that the accident involving a 14-seater matatu Registration Number KCK 356C belonging to KAMUNA SACCO occurred at around 13.30 hrs.

He added that the PSV matatu, which was headed to Nyeri when the accident occurred hit the old lady as she was crossing the road from Ngoingwa direction.

Nobody in the matatu was injured.

“We are going to arraign this driver, one Duncan Mwangi Kuria, in court tomorrow and charge him with the death of the victim. Otherwise, her body has been moved to General Kago Road Funeral

Home awaiting postmortem,” said Simba.

The vehicle has been detained at Thika Police Station awaiting for inspection.

The accident caused outrage among the residents who blocked the road in protest. The residents said were fed up with the increased accidents due to speeding vehicles despite the government promise to put up a footbridge in the area.

“The construction works for this footbridge is taking too long as our people continue to die here. This is unacceptable and we request our leaders to follow up the matter and ensure that the work is expedited,” said one bodaboda operator who works at the junction of Thika and Mang’u roads.

The protests caused a major traffic snarl up along the highway, Nyeri bound, but the situation was later contained by the Thika police who cleared the road.

The much awaited construction of Thika Road footbridges got underway with the commencement of the construction works at Witeithie and Mang’u (Njomoko) by the Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) in March this year.

These two are among the four additional footbridges scheduled to be installed on the busy superhighway at a total cost of KES. 820 million.