Background History On The Now Famous Tharaka Nithi Bridge Blackspot

At 6.45 p.m. on Sunday, tragedy struck Tharaka Nithi County when a Modern Coast traveling from Maua to Mombasa went off the road and slid down the Nithi Bridge.

Police revealed that at least 33 individuals perished in the crash as of Monday morning, while 10 more were being treated at local hospitals.

According to witnesses, the bus’s driver was speeding when it lost control and fell 40 meters into the Nithi river.
The Nithi Bridge has a history of serious problems, and the catastrophe that occurred there on Sunday is not the first to occur there.

A similar tragedy occurred in Tharaka Nithi in August 2000 when a passenger bus plunged into the river, killing 45 passengers and injuring at least 27 more.

Similar to that, the Tawfiq bus was making its way from Mombasa to Maua. The disaster in 2000 increased the total number of fatalities at the Nithi Bridge over a five-year period to 158.

56 passengers on a Stage Coach bus were killed in 1998. In the same year, people on an Akamba bus narrowly avoided death after a landslide formed a sizable gully alongside the bridge.

Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki described the bridge as the most hazardous in an interview from 2018 and advised people to avoid the slope, which has been proven to be the main reason for traffic accidents.

Njuki suggested building straight pillars from Mitheru or rerouting the route to cut through the nearby slopes.

“It means we have to buy land here, farmers and owners have to be compensated,” he said.
Numerous incidents that have occurred at the Nithi Bridge have mostly been attributed to human error, careless driving, and the unsteady topography of the area.

In addition to passenger cars, private cars and those transporting Miraa have also crashed into the 40-meter gorge, resulting in fatalities.