Family’s grief over film-maker and daughter, 4, killed in Kenya crash

Pioneering film-maker: Polly Renton with her daughter Sita, far left, and baby son Tristan, who survived the crash that killed mother and daughter on the road between Nairobi and Mombasa

The family of a celebrated film-maker killed along with her four-year-old daughter in a horror crash in Kenya today told of their devastation at the tragedy.

Documentary maker Polly Renton and daughter Sita died as she drove to interview nurses at a remote medical clinic. Her baby son Tristan survived.

Ms Renton, 40, championed ethical journalism and pioneered the Kenyan version of the BBC's Question Time. She was the daughter of former Tory chief whip, Lord Renton of Mount Harry, and the author Alice Renton.

Mother and daughter were killed on 28 May while driving with Tristan, 11 months, and their nanny from the family home in Nairobi to a remote medical clinic Ms Renton had helped to establish.

The rough Nairobi-to-Mombasa road was engulfed by a sudden sandstorm when the crash happened.

Ms Renton's elder brother, Alex, 49, said: "A huge truck came straight down the wrong side of the road. Pol slewed the car to the left but they took the truck broadside into the car.

"She was in her driver's seat and Sita was right behind her. They died instantly. The baby who was on the back seat was unscratched, but their nanny, Grace, who threw herself over Tristan to protect him, was injured."

The funerals of both mother and daughter were held in Kenya last week and a memorial service is planned near Lewes, where Ms Renton was born. Their ashes will be scattered in both places.

Mr Renton, who was chief features writer on the Evening Standard until July 2001, having previously been features editor from 1994 to 1996, said: "We've lost our little sister and her beautiful daughter, it's dreadful on every level. Polly was a great mum and my own children were very close to Sita, who was such a happy child."

Ms Renton's friend, television executive producer Alice Keens-Soper, said: "Polly and Sita were two peas in a pod and most people are still in a state of disbelief about it. Sita had all the curiosity, warmth and cheek of her mother."

Polly lived in Goldhawk Road for 10 years, when she directed documentaries including a Channel 4 film about the rise of cocaine use in Britain, called My Mate Charlie, and Sex Bomb, about sexually transmitted disease among British teenagers.

In 2000, she moved to Kenya, where the firm she founded trained young Kenyans to become "ethical" TV journalists and technicians.

She used her expertise to plan and produce three seasons of Agenda Kenya, a show based on Question Time. Presenter David Dimbleby advised her on how to export the format successfully. He said: "Polly's idea of producing this kind of programme was much harder to do in a country like KenyaIt was an act of huge courage."

In 2002, Ms Renton met Toby Fenwick-Wilson, a safari manager. They married three years later and she gave birth to Sita and Tristan.

Ms Keens-Soper, 44, from Brixton, said: "Polly and I started our television careers together, she was incredibly bright, vivacious and compassionate, a brilliant documentary-maker.

"Agenda Kenya was like nothing you've ever seen, it was very brave and ambitious. There was an armed presence when the recording went on."

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