Bus and truck collide on Kenya's Nairobi-Mombasa highway, killing at least 24

The crash

A bus and a truck collided head-on on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway in Kenya on Sunday, 25 October, in the Kanga area near Mtito Andei. Al Jazeera put the impact at about 7:45am local time, while Europa Press gave a window of 7:00 to 8:00am. The bus belonged to a Mombasa-based church, Power of the Word Church International, and was carrying mourners home from a pastor's funeral in western Kenya. The truck was transporting cement. The collision blocked a heavily travelled road, and numerous passengers and passersby gathered at the scene.

Casualties and injuries

Early reports put the death toll at 22, a figure Makueni County Commissioner Abdullahi Khalif confirmed to Kenyan media. Later reports gave higher numbers: Al Jazeera counted at least 24 killed and 24 injured, while Tgcom24 reported 24 dead and 16 injured after two of the wounded died in hospital. The injured were taken to the Mtito Andei sub-county hospital, close to the crash site, where medical superintendent Kevin Wamalwa said some victims died at the scene and others later from their injuries. Wamalwa told The Star that staff were compiling a list of the victims, and that some had died while receiving treatment. Khalif has said the toll could still rise, so the figure remains provisional.

Causes under investigation

Authorities had not determined the cause as of the latest reports. Khalif told The Standard that the bus driver had tried to overtake several vehicles before colliding with an oncoming truck. The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) suspected improper overtaking, based on information that the vehicles had collided head-on, The Independent reported. Survivor accounts differ from that picture: one passenger told The Independent that the truck hit the bus from behind and caused it to roll, and another survivor made the same claim to Al Jazeera. A mother of two who survived said she did not know what had happened to her two children, who had also been on the bus.

Government response

President William Ruto expressed sympathy on Sunday and ordered inspections of vehicles used for public transport. Transport Minister Davis Chirchir pledged, in a Sunday statement, tougher policing of speeding and dangerous passing, repairs to hazardous stretches of road, and stronger training and checks for commercial drivers. He said the plan would involve police, local authorities and members of parliament, with closer scrutiny of buses. The NTSA had already designated the stretch where the crash happened as an accident black spot and said recommendations had been made to address safety concerns.

A highway with repeated deadly crashes

The highway has seen fatal crashes before. On 3 October, a multi-vehicle collision near Salama on the same road killed 17 people, most of them Catholic pilgrims travelling to a prayer site. Police said a truck driver had tried to overtake another truck before that collision. The NTSA had identified that stretch as an area with a history of crashes before the latest collision.

3 October crash near Salama17

25 October crash near Mtito Andei (latest report)24

3 October crash near Salama

17 deaths

25 October crash near Mtito Andei (latest report)

24 deaths

Data from the article text