Bus crash on Kenya’s Mombasa highway kills 24 mourners

A bus carrying mourners home to Mombasa collided with a truck on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway in Makueni County, Kenya, on the morning of Oct. 25, 2026, killing at least 24 people and injuring about 24 more, police and local officials said.

The crash happened about three weeks after 17 people died in another accident on the same highway, and it has renewed calls for Kenya’s road deaths to be treated as a national emergency. Kenya records about 20,000 crashes and more than 5,000 deaths a year, according to figures cited by Africanews, which reported with The Associated Press.

The collision took place at about 7 a.m. near Kanga, past Mtito Andei, Citizen Digital reported. Makueni County Commissioner Abdullahi Khalif first confirmed 20 deaths, and the toll rose to 24 after two more people died of their injuries. The injured were taken to Mtito Andei Sub-County Hospital, which also holds the bodies.

The bus was carrying people back to Mombasa after the funeral of their church pastor in western Kenya, according to Africanews. Authorities pointed to improper overtaking as the likely cause, although the full circumstances have not been established and an investigation is under way.

Passenger Rev. Spencier Mdave, who escaped with bruises, said the truck tried to overtake, met oncoming traffic, tried to abort the move and then lost control, according to Africanews. He said the worst injuries were among passengers at the back of the bus. Accounts differ on the details, and Citizen Digital described the crash as a head-on collision between the bus and a lorry.

President William Ruto sent condolences to the families and ordered inspections of all public service vehicles. He urged drivers “to exercise utmost caution and observe traffic rules to safeguard lives,” Africanews reported. Kenya’s National Transport and Safety Authority has called for road safety to be declared a national disaster, and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir was reported by Citizen Digital as saying road safety “cannot be business as usual.”

The highway links Nairobi with Mombasa, East Africa’s busiest port. Speeding and poor road conditions have been named as factors in earlier Kenyan crashes, according to Africanews.

For Canadians, the Government of Canada’s travel advisory for Kenya tells travellers to exercise a high degree of caution, says Kenya has major road safety issues, and singles out fatal accidents on the Mombasa Highway. It advises driving defensively and avoiding driving after dark outside urban centres. Kenyan Canadians with family in Nairobi or on the coast are likely to know the route well.

Kenya is also managing an Ebola outbreak with nine confirmed cases, as we reported on Kenya’s second Ebola death.

Officials have not said when the vehicle inspections ordered by the president will begin or whether the safety authority’s request will be taken up. Police are expected to release further findings on the cause as the investigation continues.

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Via Africanews and Citizen Digital.