Local Kenyan news outlets reported that two soccer players were killed by lightning during a weekend match, according to BBC. The fatal incident is said to have occurred in a Kisii county school park. Aside from the deaths, two other players who were injured during the soccer match were brought to the hospital for treatment. According to a football federation official in East Africa, the rains began while the friendly tournament was in progress.
“It is quite unfortunate that they lost their lives while playing a game that they loved most. As federation officials, we send our condolences to the affected families,” Football Kenya Federation chairman Evans Akang’a was quoted as saying, per the Daily Nation.
In an effort to prevent such tragedies, Akang’a further encouraged appropriate officials to install lightning arresters in public areas where such matches are staged. Following the recent tragedy, the Daily Nation stated that educational institutions in Kisii County had begun to repair lightning arresters.
This is purportedly in response to the region experiencing moderate rainfall, a weather pattern that is typically accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning. There have since been calls for lightning arresters to be installed in schools and residences.
“If you look at the institutions around us, there are no arresters on top of the buildings. Here in the Manyansi area, lightning is fond of striking. It has been striking trees and the other day, it took the lives of young people. We now fear for the safety of our children going forward,” Mr. Laban Nyakundi, an uncle of one of the deceased players, said.
People being killed by lightning in Kisii County, on the other hand, is nothing new. 15 pupils perished under similar circumstances in the 1990s. According to a meteorologist who talked to the Daily Nation, such instances occur in the area because to its proximity to the Equator and Lake Victoria. He went on to say that the clouds in such locations are cumulonimbus, which are “responsible for stormy weather” and can bring “rainy and windy conditions, resulting in hail, thunder, and lighting.”
“Kisii is wedged on an escarpment between the moist warm winds of Lake Victoria on the West, and the cool high altitude winds that prevail every year-round from the East. Many people live on hills and the population is growing. This has made people build houses densely with tin roofs being popular,” Mr. Henry Sese, the meteorologist, said.
Though there’s no Kenyan law that requires people to install lightning arresters after constructing a home, Mr. Sese urged his compatriots to explore fixing them for safety reasons.
“Not just anyone can put up lightning rods. He or she must be someone knowledgeable because they will be required to design it in such a way that when lightning strikes, it redirects its energy to the earth where it is absorbed,” he explained.