By 3 News online staff
The Kenyan team leader with a New Zealand school trip on which four people were killed says he’s offended at suggestions he was involved in a cover-up.
Calvine Ominde is Bethlehem College’s partner in Kenya, and was driving a vehicle ahead of the van in which three New Zealanders and a Kenyan man were killed.
Caitlin Dickson, Brian and Grace Johnston, and local man Christopher Mmata died two weeks ago after the crash near the small village of Ma'hanga. Five others were taken to hospital.
Mr Mmata was supposed to be driving the van, and was initially thought to have been at the wheel when the accident occurred. But Bethlehem College revealed yesterday that David Fellows, an 18-year-old recent graduate of the college, was actually driving at the time of the crash.
READ MORE: Driver swap before Kenyan crash
Speaking to Firstline this morning, Mr Ominde says he believed Mr Mmata had been driving, as his body was found on the driver’s side of the van.
“All I can remember is Chris was lying down from the driver’s side,” he says. “He smiled to me and I knew he was gone. He was my friend. He was the last person I saw driving when we came out from the high school.”
Mr Ominde says that while Mr Fellows told him at the time that he was responsible, he didn’t take much notice of the comment during the chaos which followed the crash.
“I took Grace, carried Grace into my car. I carried Caitlin into the other car, when she was saying that ‘Calvine, it’s fine, I’m okay’. I tried to help the rest of the kids. Dave came to me and he told me, ‘Calvine, it’s my fault,’ but I didn’t bother so much, I didn’t know what he meant, because I knew Chris was driving.”
Bethlehem College principal Eoin Crosbie yesterday indicated that Mr Ominde may have kept the driver's identity secret in order to get the students home without police investigation.
But Mr Ominde says he’s offended at any suggestion he “covered up” for the New Zealand group.
“Why should I cover up for them when I’m mourning? When I’m mourning the death of my friend? I really feel offended.”
Mr Ominde says he doesn’t know why Mr Fellows would have ended up driving the van instead of Mr Mmata.
“I don’t know if there was any swapping of any drivers, and I think […] who would tell us the truth about what happened are the team members who are in that van, and why it happened. And I would really appreciate it if I get news about that, because I was not in that van.”
He says that all the evidence at the scene pointed to Mr Mmata being in the driver’s seat.
“The post-mortem report showed that Chris broke his ribs – all of them. Now, I cannot understand when the whole vehicle [was] wrecked, as you see from the front it’s totally damaged, and I’m being told now Dave was driving, and he escaped unharmed? To me that’s a miracle.”
There was only one other Kenyan member of the group in the van that crashed, according to Mr Ominde, and he says he can’t remember what happened.
“The other member of my team who was in that van was Peter, and Peter went to the ICU [intensive care unit]. I’ve asked him even yesterday about this and he told me he cannot remember anything,” says Mr Ominde.
READ MORE: Kenyan crash driver could face charges
3 News
source: newshub archive
