When Daniel Osieko walks on the streets of his Muhoroni hometown, heads turn and people speak in low tones about him.
The 44-year-old biology teacher has in the last month been attracting attention after he emerged unscathed from the front seat of a 14-seater matatu involved in an accident that killed nine people on Tuesday September 3.
His unlikely escape story would have remained a mere statistic had it not been for the ‘miracle images’ of Mr Osieko that circulated on social media.
Eyewitness videos and photographs from the Muhoroni-Kipsitet Road accident show Mr Osieko standing up unaided next to the front seat after the vehicle’s entire roof was ripped off from the impact of the collision with a lorry.
Moments earlier, he had been seated between the driver, who died on the spot, and another passenger, who sustained injuries and is said to be admitted to hospital weeks after the accident.
“People still view me as a miracle. To some I am like a ghost and others even go as far as touching me to confirm that I am actually alive. Even my neighbours still view me either as an angel or a ghost. I saw the hand of God on that day,” Mr Osieko told Nation.Africa at an exclusive interview at his Muhoroni home.
Apart from a small scar on the front of his right arm, you would not know he was an accident survivor who had emerged from the matatu wreckage that is now at Kipsitet Police Station.
He has been examined in three hospitals and each has given him a clean bill of health; no broken bone, no broken rib, no dislocation, no internal bleeding and an intact skull.
The soft-spoken father of three says he may be well physically but remains psychologically disturbed. He can hardly stay alone, fears travelling and images of human bodies and the headlights of the lorry that hit their car keeps playing on his mind.
“It is unfortunate that I have to use the same road and pass near the scene because I am a teacher in Siaya County. I hope the Teacher’s Service Commission can accept my transfer request so that I am saved from the trauma of having to travel frequently to be with my family here in Muhoroni. It is now tough to travel even though it is something I was already used to,” he said.
A Bible and a notebook in hand, Mr Osieko repeatedly quotes the scriptures to emphasise that he is a living miracle just like the biblical Daniel who survived in the den of lions.
That Tuesday September 3 started like a normal day. He had spent the previous week in Bungoma County because there was a teachers’ strike. Mr Osieko had joined evangelists from the Anglican church of Kenya to preach. He was even feeling honoured to have been in the same church with President William Ruto who had attended the Sunday Service at St Chrispine ACK Bungoma.
The teacher’s strike was called off on Monday September 2 and he was reporting back to school on the fateful Tuesday. Wearing a white shirt and grey trousers, Mr Osieko took his backpack, prayed and left to board the matatu headed to Kisumu. It was around 1pm.
It is a trip he had made almost every week for the last 14 years. Inside the vehicle were familiar faces, including the wife of his colleague teacher who boarded with her daughter in school uniform. He had no idea that was the last time he was seeing them alive.
“I had second thoughts about the vehicle because it was delayed and kept going back and forth in search of more passengers. At some point I wanted to alight and grab some lunch first but decided against it because I thought I would delay further or not travel in the long run,” Mr Osieko says.
The vehicle left for Kisumu on the badly damaged Muhoroni-Kipsitet road. Apart from the rattling noise as the matatu navigated potholes, Mr Osieko says the passengers behind him were chatty because most were familiar with one another.
On the front seat, all was quiet as he concentrated on sending pocket money to his son in high school and the passenger on his left stared at the sugarcane plantations. The driver focused on dodging potholes.
“Just when we started going uphill, I saw a lorry coming towards Muhoroni, it was in its lane so I didn’t see anything to worry about. When I took a second look, I saw it flash its headlights thrice in quick succession. Then the delivery message for my M-Pesa transaction came through and I turned my attention to the phone. But in a few seconds, there was a loud bang, screams and a lot of dust. It was as if something had flown over us,” he says.
Sandwiched between the driver and his fellow passenger, his first reaction was to wave his hand to check whether the windshield was still there as he tried to find his way out. There was none and the roof of the car was gone. A police report would later reveal that the lorry driver lost control and hit the matatu.
“I checked the driver on my right and he was slumped on the steering wheel. I immediately realised he was dead. The person seated to my left was also immobile. I looked to the back of the vehicle and what I saw still traumatises me to date. The scene was horrific — people were screaming in pain then going silent. There was a lot of blood,” he told Nation Africa.
It is at this point that the good Samaritan in the viral video approached the vehicle and called out for him. Mr Osieko had slid back into the back rest of the front seat from the impact. He stood up unaided, lifted his leg over the dashboard and jumped out. The dramatic moment was captured on camera.
His wife Judy Omanga recalls the panic after a stranger called her to break the news. She had to seek the help of a colleague to drive to the scene within the hour it had happened.
“When I saw the state of the vehicle, it was impossible to believe someone could have emerged from it alive. So I went on looking for him among the dead. I was crying. I had not seen him and since some bodies had been thrown a bit far from the scene, I grew too weak to continue,” Judy said.
Someone told her husband was seated on the front seat and had been rushed to the hospital. She looked at the vehicle one more time and lost hope completely about him surviving.
At the Muhoroni Sub- County hospital, doctors were examining him, they had to be sure it was just the minor cuts on his arm and neck. He was stitched and referred to Kericho for further medical examinations. That meant he was to drive right back on the same road.
They stopped at the scene to check on his items, including his mobile phone, which he regrets losing. Some first responders had reportedly stolen from the dead and the survivors in a show of brutality for victims.
“In that accident scene, passengers were injured but some people were stealing money and other items from the dead. I lost my phone and my bag. We need to be fair to those who are suffering and I think when you take things from people who are dying it may not go well with you. I want to urge them (those who stole) to find it in their heart to return the items,” Mr Osieko says.
The area where the accident happened has become a blackspot. In February 2024, a bus rammed into a stationary trailer along the same road where in January 2023 four people died and 46 others were injured almost opposite the scene of the September 3crash.
The section is part of the Kisumu-Chemelil-Muhoroni-Kipsitet road project tendered in 2021 and whose construction has stalled.
The Kenya National Highways Authority contracted three firms to rebuild the 118-kilometre tarmac road from Kisumu’s Mamboleo junction but since 2020, only minor surface works have been done and no contractor is on site.
The section where the accident happened falls within the 42.5-Kilometre Chemelil-Muhoroni -Kipsitet junction awarded to M/s H Young Co Ltd in June 2020 at a cost of Sh4.9 billion. It also includes the C35 -Koru Centre Link Road and a 14-Kilometre Muhoroni-Songhor Road.
“This road needs to be repaired because now it is preferred by vehicles coming from Kisumu to Nairobi. We need to be more proactive. I noticed that after that accident, they added some murram and it is sad that they had to wait for more people to die. Now the murram has been swept away barely a month later,” Mr Osieko said.
The road is also used by tractors transporting sugarcane, which frequently stall and endanger the lives of motorists. A high school head teacher from the area is the latest casualty on the road after his car hit a stationary tractor near Koru junction on September 30. Mr George Opiyo, who heads Awasi Boys Secondary School, died instantly and will be buried on October 19.
