At Least 24 Dead After Bus Carrying Funeral Mourners Hits Truck on Kenya's Nairobi-Mombasa Highway

A church bus returning from a pastor's funeral collided with a cement truck near Mtito Andei, and the transport minister promised tougher enforcement after the second deadly crash on the route in just over three weeks.

At least 24 people were killed and another 24 injured when a bus carrying mourners collided with a truck on a major highway in southeastern Kenya, police said. Hospital officials confirmed the number of injured.

The crash took place at about 7:45am local time (04:45 GMT) on Sunday, October 25, in the Kanga area near Mtito Andei. The road links the capital, Nairobi, with the coastal city of Mombasa.

The bus belonged to Power of the Word Church International in Mombasa. It was bringing passengers home from the funeral of their pastor in western Kenya. One survivor said the group had stopped for breakfast shortly before the collision. The other vehicle was a truck hauling cement.

Violet Mwandonyi, who survived, told the Associated Press that she remembered passengers crying out for passing motorists to help. She said she did not know what had become of her two children, who had been travelling on the bus.

The cause is still under investigation, but early accounts point in different directions. Makueni County Commissioner Abdullahi Khalif, the government's senior administrator in the area, told the Kenyan newspaper The Standard that the bus driver had tried to overtake several vehicles before hitting an oncoming truck. Kenya's National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) also named dangerous overtaking as a possible cause. Another survivor, however, said the truck struck the bus from behind.

The crash came just over three weeks after another deadly collision on the same highway. On October 3, a crash involving several vehicles near Salama killed 17 people, most of them Catholic pilgrims heading to a prayer site. Police said a truck driver had tried to overtake another truck before that collision, and the NTSA had previously flagged the stretch as having a history of crashes.

President William Ruto offered condolences on Sunday and ordered inspections of vehicles used for public transport. Transport Minister Davis Chirchir said the government would step up enforcement against speeding and unsafe overtaking, improve dangerous sections of road, and strengthen training and checks for commercial drivers.

In a statement, Chirchir said the government would work with police, local authorities and lawmakers, including on closer oversight of buses and heavy goods vehicles. "We cannot continue treating road safety as business as usual," he said.

NTSA figures reported by Kenyan media show that 5,009 people died in road crashes in 2025, and 2,150 deaths were recorded in the first half of 2026. The authority estimates that about 20,000 crashes occur across Kenya each year. After Sunday's collision, it called for road crashes to be declared a national disaster.

Author Benjamin Moser Says Jewish Anti-Zionism Is a Long-Buried Tradition

In a new book and a series of interviews, the Pulitzer-winning writer argues that Jewish opposition to Zionism has deep roots, even as critics fault his methods and tone.