Catholic Man Who Missed Fatal Bus That Crashed Killing 17 Breaks Silence

Forty-one-year-old Cornelius Korir is grappling with the shock of narrowly escaping a fatal accident, that claimed the lives of 17 fellow parishioners from St Mathias Mulumba Catholic Church, Mikindani Parish.

Korir had planned to travel with the group to Subukia for the National Prayer Day at the Subukia Shrine. He went to the Dreamline offices and secured a seat on a different bus for the journey.

Later that evening, while attending Mass at his church, Korir received news that a seat had become available on the vehicle carrying his fellow worshippers. However, having already purchased his ticket on another bus, the seat was given to someone else.

“I had already bought my ticket, so they decided to give that seat to another person,” Korir said.

He proceeded with his original travel plans and arrived safely in Subukia. It was only after reaching his destination that he received a call from his community chairperson informing him that the vehicle carrying his fellow parishioners had been involved in a serious crash near Salama.

“I was shocked. I had just arrived in Subukia when I was told my colleagues had died in an accident,” he said.

The news left Korir deeply shaken, particularly because he had initially expected to make the journey with the same group. A change in travel arrangements had ultimately kept him away from the vehicle when the accident happened.

The 41-year-old father of three was now left to process the loss of people he knew and worshipped with at St Mathias Mulumba Catholic Church.

Korir’s experience has highlighted the painful uncertainty surrounding the tragedy, as a routine journey to attend a religious event ended with the deaths of 17 Catholic faithful.

For him, the decision to keep his original ticket became a narrow escape from a journey that ended in tragedy. He had travelled separately and reached Subukia safely, only to receive devastating news about the people he had expected to accompany.

LINK: https://www.tuko.co.ke/kenya/counties/641939-kenyan-newspapers-october-4-catholic-man-missed-fated-bus-crashed-killing-17-speaks/

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