Muchemi Wachira
15 June 2008
Nairobi — Konjong'a village in Narok North district is one area motorists find horrible to drive through during the day owing to heavy fog.
From morning to evening, clouds of fog envelop the entire area reducing visibility considerably.
According to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority experts, the fog could have been the cause of the plane crash that claimed the lives of Roads minister Kipkalia Kones and Home Affairs assistant minister Lorna Loboso.
The pilot of the Cessna 210E single-engine aircraft, Christopher Schenerr, a German national, also died. The fourth victim was Kones's bodyguard, Constable Kennedy Kipruto Bett.
Traumatised
Rising to 9,000 feet above sea level, Konjong'a has rugged, high terrain. It has straight-up ridges and is heavily forested. But some daring people have constructed houses on these ridges.
At the site of the aircraft crash, one of the most hilly parts on the ridge, there is just one house, but the owner, Mr David Gathii, a retired CID officer does not live there.
Kamau Muthoni, 18, is the only resident of the five-acre compound, and it is he who witnessed the crash that left him traumatised.
And he only talked in the morning the following day after recovering from the shock.
"What I can recall is seeing the image of a big object like a plane that dived over me and hit three cyprus trees before plunging on top of the roof of the main house," Kamau narrated.
The proximity of the disabled plane as it came hurtling down was magnified by the fact he was on top of the roof carrying out repairs.
Mr Gathii, who is a businessman in Nairobi, had asked him to construct the hut about 50 metres away from the main house.
According to Mr Kamau, there are several tall cyprus trees in the compound, and because the aircraft was flying very low, it struck one of the trees, severing the branches.
Reduced to pieces
It then dived between two other trees, smashing into the roof of the main house and then plunged to the hard ground.
The plane did not burst into flames, but it was reduced to pieces following the impact.
But Mr Kamau cannot recall what happened afterwards as the impact of the crash hurled him from the roof where he was doing his work to the ground.
"It happened so fast that I cannot explain every detail. I only remember the loud bang that made me fall down from the top of the roof I was constructing.
"I lost consciousness for some minutes and when I regained it, I fled downhill holding my hammer.
"I only returned later when I heard voices of people coming to the scene of the crash," he said in an interview with the Sunday Nation.
One of the first people to arrive on the scene was Harrison Gachathi, a shop owner at the Konjong'a Shopping Centre.
One of the first people to arrive at the scene was Harrison Gachathi, a shop owner at the Konjong'a Shopping Centre.
"I remember hearing some bhang downhill. But I could not imagine it was a plane because it is hard to see planes using that route.
"At first I thought it was a vehicle that has crashed. So I decided to go and find out," Mr Gachathi said in an interview at the scene.
Area police boss Patrick Wambani arrived at the scene at around 5 pm and started the rescue mission.
Then the area district commissioner, Mr Andrew Karia came after 9 pm while the Rift Valley provincial police officer, Mr Josphat Ashimalla arrived after 10 pm.
Why did it take the district security team so long to arrive? "We were only informed about the crash at around 3.30 pm and the distance was beyond our capacity to communicate," Mr Karia said.
Narok Town, which is the district headquarters, is 80 kilometres away from the scene of the accident.
And the 25-kilometre stretch from Nairegi Enkare junction at Nairobi-Narok Road, which leads to the village, is bumpy.
The rescue mission, which included the Kenya Police, the Kenya Red Cross personnel and the local people could not do anything that fateful night because it was dark.
And owing to the chilly weather that comes with light rains, the whole place was slippery.
Besides, the bodies had first to be identified before they could be flown to the Lee Funeral Home in Nairobi.
And so they had to stay at the scene of the crash overnight. They were only removed the following day after the Chief Government Pathologist, Dr Moses Njue arrived.
Dr Njue who first familiarised himself with the area assembled all the pieces of the four bodies that had been strewn all over.
He was expected to do postmortem on the bodies later.
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