A 46-year-old pastor has died after a car crashed into his restaurant in Watamu village, Kilifi County on Friday evening.
The crash happened just after 4 pm at his hotel along the turtle bay road in Watamu.
The man identified as Tom Abdhala Nzivo was seated at his hotel when the incident occurred. He had just served customers who had already left.
A police report seen by The Standard indicates that the car went airborne, before crashing into the restaurant.
Malindi Traffic Police Commander Stephen Ochiri said a preliminary investigation shows that the vehicle was driven at an extremely high speed, veered from the road, hit an embankment, and went airborne. The car crashed into the hotel causing significant damage.
''The car was coming from Turtle Bay heading to Gede stage and crashed into the hotel which is located along the road,'' said Ochiri.
Ochiri further says after the incident, the driver of the vehicle surrendered at the Watamu Police Station.
He was transferred and is being currently held at the Malindi Police Station.
Pastor Tom had been serving as an overseer with the reconciliation center in Watamu for years.
According to the deceased's son, Walter Tom, three other people were sitting outside at the time, including his mother, aunt, and cousin when the car struck the hotel.
Walter said their father opened the hotel last year to help cater to his family.
Tom who is currently a student at Godoma technical college is now worried that his education and that of his siblings might come to an end considering that their father was the family's breadwinner.
''I'm not sure what will befall us, the future of our two other siblings is now bleak'' he said.
Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Forensics visited the area and documented the scene.
A postmortem has been conducted on the body at the Malindi Sub-county mortuary pending further investigations.
Police are now investigating the cause of the accident.
