A retired Airforce pilot Colonel (Rtd) James Gitahi Nguyo has died in a horror road crash where the car he was driving burst into a ball of fire.
His body was burnt beyond recognition after the car caught fire on impact when it collided head on with a lorry at Kyumvi junction on Nairobi-Mombasa road.
By the time emergency services were arriving at the scene his body had been burnt badly and the car reduced to a shell.
Gitahi, the husband of nominated Senator Betty Batuli Montet, was alone in the car when the crash occurred on Wednesday, March 5, at around 5:30 pm.
Witnesses said he was overtaking another lorry when he misjudged the distance of an approaching truck.
The impact sent his vehicle off the road, where it caught fire, trapping him inside.
Eye witnesses said with no fire figthing equipment nearby, they watched as the car and the driver were consumed by the fiery fire.
Gitahi, a retired military pilot, had continued flying commercial fixed-wing aircraft at Wilson Airport.
He and his family lived in Maanzoni and also had a residence in Nairobi’s Nyari area.
The lorry driver sustained a fractured left leg and was hospitalized.
