Leonea Baraza mourns fiancée Veronica, who died in the multiple-vehicle crash that claimed 17 lives / ScreengrabLeonea Baraza is mourning his fiancée Veronica after she was killed in the multiple-vehicle crash that claimed 17 lives along the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway early Saturday morning.
Baraza said they had been preparing for their wedding in February 2027 after he completed paying her dowry in August.
Speaking to Citizen TV, Baraza said he last spoke to Veronica on Friday while she was travelling through Mtito Andei. He later tried calling her several times but received no answer.
“I was given a go-ahead by her parents to plan the wedding. We planned to do the wedding in February 2027. It is a sad situation; I did not expect such a kind of thing to happen. I did not expect that us bidding each other goodbye on Friday would be the last time I was speaking to her,” he said.
Baraza said he called her three times after failing to reach her but assumed she could have been tired and asleep.
“I tried calling her, but there was no response; it was going through, but no one was picking up. I called her three times, and I thought she was tired and might have slept,” he said.
He tried again the following morning, but Veronica still did not answer. He later learnt that she had died in the crash.
Baraza and Veronica had been in a relationship since 2024.
The crash occurred at Mlima Kiu in Salama, Kilome, along the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway and involved a 14-seater matatu, two lorries and several other vehicles.
Police at Salama Police Station said the crash followed a series of collisions involving a lorry travelling from Nairobi towards Mombasa.
According to police, the lorry allegedly failed to keep to its proper lane while overtaking a fleet of vehicles before ramming into the rear right side of another lorry.
The driver then lost control, with the lorry colliding with an oncoming Peugeot and a Toyota Noah before swerving into the climbing lane, where it collided head-on with a PSV matatu.
The lorry later collided with a Nissan UD travelling from Mombasa towards Nairobi, police said.
Police said the matatu driver and 12 passengers died at the scene, while the lorry driver and three occupants also died, bringing the total number of fatalities to 17.
Sultan Hamud Sub-County Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Stephen Mwangangi described the incident as a chain of accidents.
