50 dead in Kenya bus accident

Fifty people have been killed in a bus accident in western Kenya early on Wednesday, authorities said.

Witnesses and police on Wednesday said the bus swerved off the road while driving down a steep slope, and rolled into a ditch in western Kericho county.

According to police, the bus was travelling from Nairobi to the western town of Kakamega and was carrying 52 passengers.

The Kenyan Red Cross wrote on Twitter that the bus had overturned. However, more details on the cause of the accident were not immediately available.

Official statistics show that around 3,000 people die annually in road accidents in Kenya, but the World Health Organization estimates the figure could be as high as 12,000.

In December 2017, 36 people died in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck.

In 2016, more than 40 people died when an out-of-control fuel tanker rammed into vehicles and then exploded on a busy stretch of highway.