Status of the road where 14 lost their lives in horrific Migaa crash
Some of the barriers used to separate the lanes along the Salgaa-Sachangwan stretch lie beside the road on August 21, 2024.
It’s 10 am, and vehicles ply their normal route into and out of Nakuru County as usual, in the slightly steep climbing and descending lanes along the Salgaa stretch.
Everything seems calm as the long trailers, motorbikes, and public and private vehicles carefully navigate the now dilapidated lanes, some with worn-out rubble strips.
New Jersey barriers meant to separate the known (marked) blackspot area lay on the sides of the road as a section of the road remains devoid of the same barricades, while others stand chipped and grazed from the impact of large vehicles hitting on them.
A lorry speeds down the road and quickly switches lanes in an attempt to avoid a large pothole on the road.
A pothole on the Salgaa-Sachangwan stretch forces vehicles to switch lanes in attempts to avoid it on August 21, 2024.
On the descending lane from Eldoret at Migaa area in Sachangwan, lies what remains from the August 20, 2024 accident that claimed the lives of 14 people and left another 21 people nursing minor and serious injuries.
Broken window glass, grains of maize, green bananas, unripe avocados, travellers bus receipts, a muddy coast bus travellers’ form with personal details, pieces of cloth, men’s and women’s shoes, and the roof of the coast bus litter the side of the road and in the ditch with some tainted with gasoline.
Roof of the bus involved in a road crash that killed 14 people lies along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway on August 21, 2024.
A man is displeased with the litter and mostly collects it in one place and lights it up.
The Salgaa stretch is now slowly regaining its lost bad glory as the highway of death.
A view of the Nakuru-Eldoret highway along the dreaded Salgaa stretch on August 21, 2024.
Just under a month ago, along the same stretch, a school bus and two private vehicles were involved in an accident at Sachang'wan area where 30 people among them 26 pupils, three teachers, and a cook sustained injuries while two other people escaped unhurt.
The 20-kilometer stretch has witnessed hundreds of lives lost and others treating serious injuries over the past decade.
The commonplace blame is on a steep unwinding section of the road that currently hosts a black spot signage to caution drivers as well as the fault in the road's infrastructural design.
Some of the speed bumps along the Salgaa-Sachangwan stretch are worn out.
It now seems interventions such as the erection of speed bumps have not stopped carnage on the highway, although road crashes have reduces significantly.
Nickson Kibet, a Sachangwan resident, blames the accidents and their fatal impact on careless driving, the potholes on the road, and the ditch across it which he says continues to deepen as the rains increase.
While plans to expand the Nakuru-Eldoret highway are underway, the implementation of this expansion is something that Kibet does not foresee happening now or in the near future and calls on the government to provide short-term solutions to the problem including re-carpeting of the highway.
Hopefully, when the dualling starts, the Salgaa stretch and the Nakuru-Eldoret highway shed its infamous reputation and provide a safe, reliable passage for all who traverse it.