Colleague Identifies Victim of Fatal Mbagathi Road Footbridge Crash
Three people died early Saturday when a car veered off Mbagathi Road in Nairobi, mounted a pedestrian footbridge near the Riara University turn-off, and burst into flames. Police confirmed the deaths of the driver and two passengers, whose bodies were burnt beyond recognition. A grieving colleague has since named one of the victims as Allan Mwenda, though police had not officially confirmed all identities at the time of reporting.
Witnesses say the car left the carriageway, climbed the stairs of the pedestrian footbridge, and came to rest partway up the structure before catching fire. Reports differ on the exact time, some placing it around 1am and others around 6am, and that detail hasn’t been settled.
One witness said a police officer tried to pull a trapped passenger from the wreckage but had to retreat as the flames grew too intense.
The bodies were taken to Nairobi Funeral Home for identification and post-mortem examinations. Detectives were still working to trace the families of some victims as of the latest police-sourced reports.
A friend says goodbye
Mwiti O’Miiru named his friend and deskmate as Allan Mwenda, a Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the National Oil Corporation of Kenya. The two had shared an office since 2023.
“It has been one rough day today. RIP Allan,” Mwiti wrote.
Allan’s name had already been circulating alongside the crash reports before Mwiti’s tribute, but the identification so far rests on his account, not an official police statement.
Investigators say the cause of the crash, including how the vehicle ended up on an elevated footbridge, has not yet been established. No findings have been released.
