Hundreds of Travelers Spend Night on Mombasa Highway After Trailer Accident

Hundreds of travelers spent their Sunday night in the cold along Mombasa highway following an accident involving a trailer.

This is after a trailer, involved in an accident blocked the busy highway at the Makindu-Kiboko area, police said.

Efforts by officials to clear the scene did not bear any fruits. Impatient road users overlapped causing more chaos at the scene, police said.

The trailer blocked the highway at around 6 pm on Sunday, and shortly after, heavy traffic was witnessed on the road on both sides, police said.

Heavy rains experienced in the area worsened the situation even as police tried to clear the traffic.

Police confirmed the developments forced hundreds of travelers to spend the night on the road.

“It rained until late in the night and we could not manage to remove the trailer. Many spent the night here,” said a police officer at the scene.

He said many of them were fatigued and that efforts were being made to tow the trailer from the scene and clear the backlog of vehicles.

Police headquarters said they were coordinating the efforts to clear the mess on Monday morning amid protests from road users who felt abandoned.

Mombasa highway is a crucial link as it handles thousands of vehicles including those headed for Uganda, Rwanda, DRC, South Sudan and Burundi.

The snarl-up is being witnessed ahead of President William Ruto’s visit to Makindu, Makueni County, where he was Monday expected to lead a national tree-planting exercise.