Christopher Musili cheated death by the skin of his teeth in the school bus that sank in a Mwingi river on Saturday.
He is yet to register the tragedy in his mind.
The devout choir member at St Cecilia Catholic Church woke up early on Sunday as is his routine and attended the 7.30am mass.
The choir benches stood mostly empty and the mood of the faithful was mournful. That was the sight that struck him. And he broke down with sorrow.
“I just rushed out of the church and started crying. In the choir, we were like family. We cracked jokes and would laugh all the time. I lost so many close friends,” Musili, 24, told the Star, struggling to catch his breath due to sadness.
A religious sister followed him out and found him weeping and offered a shoulder to him. She comforted him back to the church.
Most of Musili's choir mates drowned when the bus sank. Their bodies are preserved in the local morgue while others are still in the belly of River Enziu. Ten people, Musili being the seventh, were lucky to be rescued.
The mass at St Cecilia continued anyhow with some members called up to join the skeleton choir. But the missing voice of Dominic Mataka, the choir instructor, made Musili sadder, totally breaking his spirit.
“He was a great teacher. I had even enrolled with him to teach me music and to sharpen my vocals to be a better singer,” he said, choking in tears.
Mutaka was the Kitui diocese choir director. He drowned.
Musili said he had a premonition. The yellow bus belonging to St Joseph Seminary had carried to capacity and arrived at the bank of the river at around 10:30am.
They waited up to 1:30pm for the water that had overflowed the bridge to subside. The river was flooded following heavy rains that had pounded the area.
The 51-seater bus had more than 15 extra passengers standing in the isle. Everyone grew impatient, pushing the driver to tempt fate.
That two matatus and a lorry had just successfully crossed the submerged bridge made the passengers even more impatient.
Musili and his colleagues in maroon and yellow uniforms had just rehearsed their songs and dances at the stop before attempting to resume travel to a wedding.
As they boarded the bus again the choir members, mainly women, pushed the driver to get going. He felt very uneasy.
“I became very fearful as the driver started going. I feared we would be submerged,” he said. “It was like a blanket of fear covering all parts of my body, shaking me to my stomach.”
But once the bus’s front wheels missed the bridge and slipped into the deep, Musili said, he became calm as the women started screaming.
“Most of the men kept quiet while women shouted ‘Jesus help us!’”
The sound of the air bubbles as the bus turned and sunk made him feel like he was inside a swimming pool but his calm mindset helped him ponder his escape. He was on the second seat from the passengers' door on the second row on the left side.
“I felt like I was in a swimming pool and I used a window which was open to get out. I closed my eyes and would hold my breath for about 20 to 30 seconds repeatedly. I took in the water four times to help not run out of oxygen,”Musili said.
He would open his eyes occasionally and swim in the direction of light and the shouts of rescuers calling out. Local divers and well-wishers were on hand to help him.
“That’s how I got saved. But I have lost a lot of friends.”
The son of a single mother does farming and rides a boda boda for a living. Musili also occasionally works in health care.
Joyous Mutua, 23, owes his life to repeated blows he made on the bus’s window, shattering the glasses to make way to his safety.
The rescue path he created also saved the lives of his two cousins who alongside him escaped unhurt.
But although lucky to be alive, Mutua lost more as 15 members of his family, including his mother, who perished in the bus.
The group was going to a wedding celebration of a brother to Fr Benson Kityambu in Nuu, Mwingi East.
The couple are Mutua’s grandparents. “We were traveling to attend my grandparents' wedding and I have lost 15 relatives following the tragedy," a teary Mutua told the Star.
“It is the windows that I broke that saved my life".
Mutua believes that the accident, which claimed the lives of his mother, sisters and aunties, could have been avoided if the government had completed building the derelict bridge. He blamed the national government, stating he had lost family due to the negligence.
"If only this stalled bridge that has been here for seven years was completed, we would not have lost our loved ones," he said.
As of Sunday evening, 25 bodies had been recovered from the river. Rescue efforts roped in KDF soldiers and divers who had three helicopters to rush the survivors to emergency help.
Mwingi East OCPD Joseph Yakan said it was not yet clear the number of passengers who were on the bus.
He said the operation to retrieve more bodies was hindered by ongoing rains while the bus was still trapped in the river.
Boniface Mwaniki, the choir chairman, said three-quarters of the members heading to the wedding ceremony perished.
He also said an ordained catholic brother by the name Ken Wanjala also died.
He urged fellow faithfuls to remember the entire Catholic Church in prayers as they go through the traumatising time.
"About 19 choir members have perished and more are still stuck in the wreckage of the school bus that was swept away by swollen River Enziu," he said.
Josphat Nzombo, a student at KMTC Mwingi campus, said they lost a student and urged the government to fasten recovery operations and retrieve bodies still trapped in the wreckage of the bus.
"We have lost a fellow student whose body has not yet been retrieved," he said.
Boniface Musyoki, who lost his wife and nephew, asked for prayers from members of the Catholic Church and other churches during the trying time.
Brian Musyoka, a diver who witnessed the event, said the driver was new on the road.
Musyoka said although he was being shown where to pass as he maneuvered his way out of the river, the force of the hole inside the drift pulled the bus.
"Crossing this river needs a driver well conversant with this river as it is a danger zone that has swallowed many lives," he said.
Leaders who rushed to the scene on Sunday included former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu, former area senator David Musila, former governor Julius Malombe, Kitui Senator Enock Wambua and Kitui Woman Rep Irene Kasalu.
Others were Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu, Kitui county ministers and MCAs.
