Police in the Elgon region have confirmed the death of three people following a head-on collision involving T’oo County Member of Parliament (MP) Solomon Chelangat Alinga.  
 
The collision occurred at 8:15am on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, at Namunsi trading centre on the Mbale-Muyembe highway.  
 
The motor crash occurred when Chelangat’s official black Toyota Pajero registration number UBL 027E collided head-on with an oncoming Sironko-bound commuter taxi on the outskirts of Mbale city. 

According to the Elgon Police region spokesperson Rogers Taitika, the deceased were commuter taxi driver Iddi Isiko, 30, a resident of Sironko district; taxi conductor Ismail Muyinda, 22, from Kaduwa village in Sironko and Hakim Magombe, 54, a resident of Moni Ward, Industrial city division in Mbale city.  

The three bodies were taken to Mbale city morgue for postmortem.  

The trio were all in the ill-fated Toyota Drone taxi registration number UBX 566B. 

“Our team has commenced investigations under reference Tar 109/2023, to ascertain the cause of this fatal incident,” Taitika said.  

Chelangat, others hospitalised 

The eight (8) injured victims were all rushed to Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, while others were later taken to the neighbouring Mt Elgon Hospital for medical attention.  They included Chelangat who sustained minor physical injuries.  
 
According to Andrew Munerya, a family member, Chelangat was "returning from his consistency where he had been monitoring government programmes implementations and sharing with his leaders".  

Recent crashes involving MPs 

This is not the first time an MP is involved in a road crash.  

In June 2015, Bukwo MP Bartille Toskin died after the vehicle he was travelling in overturned several times in Bukobooli village, along the Mbale-Tirniyi highway.  

In 2021, Bukomansimbi Woman MP Susan Namaganda died following a motor crash at Mpanga Forest Reserve in Masaka. 

A year later, Serere county MP Patrick Okabe perished in a car crash on the Mbale-Tirinti highway.  

Former Erute North MP Charles Angiro Gutomoi and three others died in a road crash on the Karuma-Olwiyo-Pakwach-Nebi road, last month (July 2023).