A Kenya bus crash involving mourners and a cement truck has killed at least 24 people and injured a further 24 on the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway, police and hospital officials said.
The collision happened at about 7.45am on Sunday in the Kanga area near Mtito Andei, on the major route between Kenya’s capital and the coastal city of Mombasa.
The bus belonged to Power of the Word Church International in Mombasa and was carrying passengers home after attending their pastor’s funeral in western Kenya. One survivor said the group had stopped for breakfast shortly before the crash.
Violet Mwandonyi, who survived, said passengers had cried out for passing motorists to help. She also said she did not know what had happened to her two children, who were travelling on the bus.
The cause of the crash is under investigation. Makueni County Commissioner Abdullahi Khalif said the bus driver appeared to have tried to overtake several vehicles before colliding with the oncoming truck, according to the Kenyan newspaper The Standard.
Kenya’s National Transport and Safety Authority also identified dangerous overtaking as a possible cause. However, another survivor said the truck had struck the bus from behind.
Government promises road safety crackdown
The deaths came just over three weeks after another collision on the same highway killed 17 people, most of them Catholic pilgrims travelling to a prayer site near Salama. Police said a truck driver had tried to overtake another lorry in that incident, while the NTSA had previously identified the stretch as having a history of crashes.
President William Ruto offered his condolences and ordered inspections of vehicles used for public transport following Sunday’s collision.
Transport Minister Davis Chirchir said enforcement against speeding and unsafe overtaking would be increased, alongside improvements to dangerous sections of road and stronger training and checks for commercial drivers.
The government will work with police, local authorities and lawmakers on the measures, including closer oversight of buses and heavy goods vehicles. “We cannot continue treating road safety as business as usual,” Mr Chirchir said.
NTSA figures reported by Kenyan media show that 5,009 people died in road crashes in 2025, while 2,150 deaths were recorded during the first half of 2026. The authority estimates that about 20,000 crashes take place across Kenya each year and has called for road crashes to be declared a national disaster.
