Were you promised heaven but ended up at hell's gate

“We started hearing noise from the upper side of the gorges and thought it was from the geothermal wells. It became louder and louder and our guide told us to move up the walls as he suspected flash floods were on the way,” he said.

“Within less than two minutes, water started flowing through the dry gorges. A minute later, our feet were inside a furious river flowing at supersonic speed. We climbed higher and only prayed that the water levels wouldn’t get where we were,” said Ohola.

Ohola added that as heavy rains started pounding the park, the other visitors they had left behind joined them as they took shelter under the canopy of the gorges.

“They joined us making a group of twelve people. We were taking shelter in a very uncomfortable position. There was not enough ground to step on. Though we didn’t know each other, we held hands together to avoid falling into the waters,” he said.

As the water levels rose, the group started moving towards an escape route during which a tragedy struck.
“All of us were terrified and were trembling as we walked towards an exit. A woman who was at the tail end slipped and fell into the waters. The next thing I saw five people being washed away by the waters. It happened so fast that we couldn’t save them,” he recounted.

On seeing the turn of events, the survivors stayed put on one location fearing that they too would slip into the river beneath their feet.
“Among those who joined us, only a foreign tourist, her daughter and their driver survived. We stayed trapped in one location for more than an hour until the waters subsided,” he told the Standard.

That place badly needs some built up entry/exit paths. Issue is KWS are too daft to do anything.

Too sad that it has occurred before with higher number of casualties and no safety mitigation measures have ever been put by KWS. Simple layered steps above the flood levels would have saved lives.

I once watched a documentary on the Euro Channel, the undersea tunnel linking UK and France. Undersea and layers of security like fire exits, escape routes, oxygen pipes etc was just amazing.

Even a jua kali platform would have saved lives. Sometimes the sheer " all of a sudden shock" can be devastating.

The place should be closed forever to avoid more lives being lost due to sheer negligence by KWS

The gorge is a natural phenomenon. If you choose to go into the gorge, there are natural risks like the flash floods, steam burns, animal bites, slipping and falling. Let us not blame KWS for forces of nature.

Another issue is that the so called guides are not professional KWS guides. They are locals who negotiated with GOK to be allowed to take tourists down the gorge and make some money.

The last time I was in the gorge, some sections had been closed off due to the risk of flash floods. I was made aware of the risk and decided to only tour the first leg which does not carry risk of flooding.