INDEPENDENT FRESH AND BIG READ DIFFERENT ‘RAFIKI’ FILM OPENS 11 THE DOOR FOR OCTOBER 2018 HOMOSEXUALS THURSDAY TO OPEN UP KSh60 (TSh1,000 | USh2,000) PG 12-13 LUCKY TO BE ALIVE NIGHTMARE POLICE SAY ILL-FATED BUS HAD NO LICENSE FOR NIGHT TRAVEL Tragic Kericho bus crash survivors tell of their ordeal Survivors of the Fort Ternan bus crash that claims more than 50 lives Moi Day Horror yesterday blamed the bus manag- ment and crew. Dickson Muyamba, a 30-year- old survivor of yesterday’s tragic accident, said the ill-fated bus left Nairobi at midnight destined to Kakamega. PAGE 2 REFERENDUM PUSH Kuttuny drafts Bill to create an executive Prime Minister While most Jubilee legislators and other proponents of the referen- dum want many political positions abolished, Cherang’any MP Joshua Kuttuny has proposed the creation of a Prime Minister’s position. PAGE 7 AUDIT QUERIES Poll agency Kenyans mourn lost millions as 56 people in suspect perish in Kericho contracts An audit report on the IEBC’s opera- tions before last year’s elections has grisly road crash revealed a possible loss of millions of shillings in suspicious contract deals. BY STAR TEAM / e Home Boyz bus that crashed and killed 56 people PAGE 9 at the Fort Ternan black spot in Kericho county was on an illegal night run, Police Inspector General VOICES Joseph Boinett said yesterday. Last night police arrested two WYCLIFFE MUGA directors of the bus fi rm, Bernard Shitiabayi and Cleophas Shiman- Water wars and yula. ey are held in a Kakamega police station. hydropolitics Kericho police commander James Mugera said the crash occurred after PAGE 20 the brakes failed. e driver lost con- trol of the bus descending the black spot area. It rolled, tumbling into a steep valley along Londiani-Muho- roni-Kisumu road, witnesses said. HELL ON WHEELS: Residents view the wreckage of the Home Boyz bus that crashed, near Fort Ternan in Kericho on CONTINUED ON PAGES 45 Wednesday dawn. Below, Survivor Dickson Muyambu at the Kericho Referral Hospital / SONU TANU 2 THE-STAR.CO.KE ursday, October 11, 2018 Dickson Muyambu at Kericho County Referral Hospital yesterday / KIPLAGAT KIRUI Kericho County Referral Hospital yesterday /KIPLANG’AT KIRUI MORE THAN 50 DEAD Bus crash survivors tell of their ordeal Passengers say bus was speeding but driver and conductors ignored their pleas to slow down PATRICK VIDIJA, KIPLANG’AT KIRUI, to be picked from town.” to his rural home in Vihiga for the his conductors could hear none of CALISTUS LUCHETI & MAURICE ALAL He suff ered head and leg injuries. burial of his mother that was slated our pleas to slow down. It swerved @ eStarKenya He said that at the terminus, they for today. e driver had stopped before veering off the road and exchanged three buses before they to allow passengers to relieve rolled several times downhill,” she THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2018 OCTOBER THURSDAY, were fi nally moved to the ill-fated themselves less than a kilometre said. Survivors of the Fort Ternan bus one. away from the accident scene, he Missee was in her sister’s company. crash that claimed more than 50 “ e bus was overloaded, forcing said. She kept asking about her, but no lives yesterday blamed the bus some passengers to sit on their “When the bus stopped, we information had been provided. management and crew for what luggage and soda crates, which alighted and relieved ourselves by Dismas Makhokha, 59, from befell them. were arranged for them on the aisle,” the roadside. Barely a kilometre Butula, Busia county, said it was Dickson Muyamba, a 30-year- Muyamba said. from there, the driver lost control unbelievable that he survived such old survivor of the grisly accident, From Nairobi to Naivasha, of the bus and it veered off the road a grisly crash. said the ill-fated bus left Nairobi at Muyamba said the bus wasn’t before rolling into the deep valley,” “It’s by God’s grace that I’m alive,” midnight destined for Kakamega. He speeding, but when they passed Muyamba said. he said. said the bus was initially scheduled the Gilgil weighbridge, the driver Linda Missee, another survivor, He was expecting to be in to leave the city at around 6pm but started speeding. confirmed that the bus was Kakamega by 6am. He was to was delayed until about 9.30pm. “ e bus driver and conductors overloaded and was being driven BUS WAS connect to Busia from the town. “We left the Machakos terminus were very rude. ey failed to heed at high speed. “Upon reaching the tunnel at at around 9.30pm, but when we our calls to slow down. e bus Most passengers who were sitting OVERLOADED about 4am, the driver started reached Kangemi, the bus made a was being driven at high speed,” on their luggage and soda crates speeding in way I’ve never seen in U-turn back to town,” Muyamba he added. perished on the spot. AND SOME my life. It seems the brakes failed said from his Kericho County “I’m lucky to be alive because I Narrating the ordeal, Missee, 28, PASSENGERS before it started to roll down the Referral Hospital bed. was seated at the back. When the said she was lucky to have survived slope,” Makhoha said. “The passengers got pissed off bus started rolling, I was thrown the accident. She said she had her USED THEIR He suff ered head injuries. e and when they demanded an out of the window throw the rear seatbelt on. LUGGAGE AND survivor said he struggled to crawl explanation, the conductor said windscreen.” “The bus was being driven towards the road where a Good there were some more passengers Muyamba said he was travelling dangerously and the driver and SODA CRATES Samaritan rescued them. STAR SURVEY HIT OR MISS TODAY’S QUESTION Do you think a blanket night travel ban would reduce accidents? YESTERDAY’S QUESTION Should Moi Day be abolished? ALI ROBA EMBU ASSEMBLY TSC Seedlings for forest project Jubilee MCAs reject chief whip Shabaab kills two teachers Mandera county has embarked on Combat appears to be in the offi ng Al Shabaab militants killed two a programme to increase its forest at the Embu county assembly after non-local teachers on Tuesday and YES 54% cover to 10 per cent to minimise the Jubilee Party reinstated the Majority burnt the staff room at Arabia Boys eff ects of climate change. Governor chief whip who had been removed Secondary School in Mandera East More news on Ali Roba said the Environment last month by her colleagues. e subcounty. e attackers armed our website. department will distribute more than party dispute resolution committee with guns and grenades stormed NO 46% Scan this quick 60,000 seedlings to households and returned Margaret Kariuki to her the school at 1am. ey proceeded response code public institutions such as schools position after she appealed her to the teachers quarters, killing the using your and health centers. September 13 removal. two on the spot as they tried to smartphone. See Page 27 See Page 26 escape. See Page 27 Thursday, October 11, 2018 THE-STAR.CO.KE 3 CORRIDORS OF POWER Alphonce Misee, the father of Susan and Linda, who survived the Kericho bus tragedy. Right, Susan /CALISTUS LUCHETU POLITICAL GOSSIP Who is doing what and where in the world of politics FAMILY GRATEFUL WHAT is happening at the police air wing? Disgruntled officers at the elite unit are silently cursing their seniors whom they accuse of Sisters headed to granny’s sitting on their promotions even after com- pleting their training. According to the officers, they are always promoted immediately after the flying course. But this has been misused burial survive bus tragedy by the bosses who have resorted to playing tribal cards and promoting only those from their tribes and the well connected, leaving the The father says the girls were expected home at 8am yesterday, only to get a rest in tears. One of the bosses, notorious for call from a good Samaritan at 4am telling him they were involved in a grisly crash frustrating his juniors was to have left ages ago, but is still around openly boasting how he will CALISTUS LUCHETU number. A woman asked me if I every town just to know where continue serving until he voluntarily decides to @TheStarKenya knew Linda and when I said yes, my sisters-in-law had reached, go home. The situation is so bad at the Wilson she informed me that she had but some two hours after we left Airport-based unit that the officers are now A family in Shinyalu, Kakamega, been involved in an accident and Nakuru, we got a call from our calling on Inspector General of Police Joseph has every reason to be grateful that she had a broken limb. When my mother-in-law informing us Boinnet (pictured) to personally and urgently after two sisters survived the Ker- I asked her about Susan, she said that Susan and Linda had been come to their aid. icho bus tragedy. she had no idea about her because involved in a tragic accident near Susan Misee, 36, and Linda many people had been seriously Kericho,” Daisy said. Misee, 27, were heading for their injured and were being ferried to The father said he is grateful to WHO is protecting and shielding a former grandmother’s burial in Burim- hospital,” Misee said God for saving his two daughters. head of a parastatal in the Ministry of Energy buli village. Their sister-in-law Daisy, “Although my daughters have ‘DESPITE from being investigated over malpractices in Their father, Alphonce Misee, younger sister Diana and a broth- been seriously injured, I thank procurement in the parastatal? Those in the said the two were expected home er, David, who were also travelling God for saving their lives and I THEM BING know say that a senior EACC official is out to at about 8am yesterday, only to from Mombasa for the funeral, want to sincerely send my heart- INJURED, I help the man get off the EACC radar.