Nairobi: A deadly collision between a church bus and a truck on Kenya’s Nairobi to Mombasa Highway has prompted the government to announce renewed road safety measures. The crash occurred on Sunday morning near Mtito Andei in Makueni County, with reports putting the death toll at up to 24 people and dozens injured. The final casualty figures have not been consistently reported.
The accident happened in the Kanga area at around 7.45 am on October 25. The bus belonged to Power of the Word Church International in Mombasa and was carrying passengers returning from their pastor’s funeral in western Kenya. The other vehicle was a commercial truck transporting cement.
The reported death toll has varied, with some Kenyan news outlets initially reporting 22 or 23 deaths before later reports gave higher figures. The number of injured people has also differed between reports. Authorities are continuing to establish the full circumstances of the collision, and the latest official casualty figures require confirmation.
President William Ruto expressed condolences to the families of those who died and directed authorities to carry out thorough inspections of public service vehicles to ensure that they meet safety requirements. His response came amid renewed concern about deadly accidents on one of Kenya’s major highways.
Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir also announced plans to strengthen road safety measures. These include tougher enforcement against dangerous overtaking and speeding, improvements to high risk road sections, and stronger oversight of commercial drivers and public service vehicles.
The government’s response follows another deadly accident on the same highway earlier this month. On October 3, a collision near Salama killed 17 people, most of them Catholic pilgrims. The two crashes have intensified calls for stronger enforcement of traffic rules and more effective measures to prevent road deaths.
The National Transport and Safety Authority said preliminary findings suggested that improper overtaking may have contributed to Sunday’s collision. The authority’s investigation team is working with the police to establish what happened before the vehicles collided.
However, accounts of the accident have differed. Makueni County Commissioner Abdullahi Khalif was reported as saying that the bus driver attempted to overtake several vehicles before colliding with the oncoming truck. Investigators have not yet established the final sequence of events.
A survivor gave a different account. Spenza Mudave told the Associated Press that the truck struck the bus from behind, causing it to roll. Another survivor, Violet Mwandonyi, said she could not recall exactly what had happened. She was also reported to be unaware of what had happened to her two children. Their circumstances were not established in the reports available.
The accident has renewed attention to Kenya’s wider road safety challenges. Figures attributed to the National Transport and Safety Authority indicate that the country records about 20,000 road crashes and more than 5,000 deaths annually. These figures highlight the continuing human cost of road accidents and the importance of effective traffic enforcement, safe vehicles and responsible driving.
The authority has also called for road crashes to be treated as a national disaster. This remains a reported appeal and should not be confused with a formal government declaration.
As investigations continue, authorities face the task of establishing the final casualty figures and determining the circumstances that led to the collision. The government has announced inspections and further enforcement measures as part of its response to the latest accident and continuing concerns about road safety in Kenya.