Governor Wavinya Ndeti has waived the medical bills for victims of the Monday evening Machakos road accident, county's health executive Dr Daniel Yumbya has said.
Yumbya said the accident's death toll stood at nine as of 10.00 pm Monday.
He said 24 out of 34 of the victims admitted at Machakos Level 5 Hospital were in critical condition at the same time.
“Out of the 24 critical victims, 4 are in very critical conditions. As of now, nine people have succumbed to the accident; eight died on the spot while another one was pronounced dead on arrival at Machakos Level 5 hospital,” Yumbya said.
He said the county government’s ambulances rushed 34 victims of the accident to the hospital from the scene of the accident.
“We have marked the four who are in very critical conditions our medics are attending to them,” Yumbya explained.
He said ten of the victims had been resuscitated and were out of danger in stable condition.
The health chief said all their medics including doctors and nurses who were not at the facility when the victims were brought in to attend to the patients.
“We have enough medical personnel and drugs. We will attend to the patients throughout the day and night,” Yumbya said.
Yumbya said security at Machakos Level 5 hospital had been beefed up and nobody is allowed to access the wards where patients in critical conditions were being attended to.
He said they had set up a desk at the hospital and urged relatives of those involved in the accident to visit it for necessary action.
“The relatives are, however, barred from accessing wards where the victims are being treated," Yumbya said.
The nine died and 34 others were seriously injured following the road accident involving a Matatu in Machakos.
Yatta subcounty police commander Jane Makau said eight people died on the spot following the accident that occurred on the Katangi-Machakos-Kitui-Nairobi road, a few kilometres from River Athi bridge.
Images shared online showed the mangled wreckage of the vehicle lying in a ditch with items strewn around the scene.
Makau said the accident involved a 42-seater minibus that was travelling from Kitui to Machakos when it crashed Monday evening.
"Eight died on the spot in the incident that happened a few minutes past 5 pm today. Traffic officers from Masii police station in Mwala subcounty responded to the incident and conducted necessary actions," Makau told the Star by phone.
She said the responding officers cleared the scene and removed the bodies to Machakos Level 5 Hospital Mortuary while the wreckage was towed to Masii police station awaiting inspection.