At least 24 killed as mourners' bus collides with truck on Kenya's Nairobi–Mombasa highway

At least 24 people have been killed and 24 more injured after a bus carrying mourners collided with a truck on Kenya’s main Nairobi–Mombasa highway on Sunday morning, police have said.

The crash happened at about 7.45am (04.45 GMT) on Sunday, 25 October, in the Kanga area near Mtito Andei, on the road linking Nairobi to the coastal city of Mombasa. Most of the injured were taken to Mtito Andei hospital, according to its medical superintendent, Paul Kisienya. (Associated Press)

The bus belonged to Power of the Word Church International in Mombasa and was taking passengers home after their pastor’s funeral in western Kenya; the passengers had stopped for breakfast at Mtito Andei shortly before the collision. The other vehicle was a truck transporting cement. (Associated Press)

The cause remains under investigation, with conflicting accounts: Makueni County Commissioner Abdullahi Khalif told Kenyan newspaper The Standard the bus driver had tried to overtake several vehicles before colliding with an oncoming truck, while another survivor said the truck struck the bus from behind. Kenya’s National Transport and Safety Authority identified dangerous overtaking as a possible cause. (Associated Press)

The crash came three weeks after another accident on the same highway killed 17 people, most of them Catholic pilgrims travelling to a prayer site near Salama on 3 October. President William Ruto offered condolences on Sunday and ordered inspections of vehicles used for public transport, while the transport authority called for crashes to be declared a national disaster, saying about 20,000 crashes claim more than 5,000 lives in Kenya each year. (Associated Press)