The crash happened in the Kanga area near Mtito Andei at about 7:45 a.m. local time on October 25. The bus, belonging to Power of the Word Church International in Mombasa, was taking passengers home from their pastor's funeral in western Kenya and had stopped for breakfast shortly before the collision, according to one survivor.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, with conflicting early accounts. Makueni County Commissioner Abdullahi Khalif told the Kenyan newspaper The Standard that the bus driver had tried to overtake several vehicles before colliding with the oncoming truck. In contrast, another survivor said the truck struck the bus from behind. The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) also cited dangerous overtaking as a possible cause.
Survivor Violet Mwandonyi told the Associated Press she remembered passengers crying out for help from passing motorists. She said she did not know what had happened to her two children, who were also on the bus.
The incident is the second major crash on the busy highway in just over three weeks. On October 3, a crash involving several vehicles killed 17 people, most of them Catholic pilgrims travelling to a prayer site. Police in that incident also blamed a truck driver attempting to overtake. The NTSA had previously identified that stretch of road as an area with 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. "We cannot continue treating road safety as business as usual," Chirchir said in a statement, calling for stronger action to reduce deaths.
Figures from the NTSA, reported by Kenyan media, show that 5,009 people died in road crashes in 2025, with 2,150 deaths recorded in the first half of 2026. The authority estimates about 20,000 crashes occur across Kenya each year and has called for road crashes to be declared a national disaster.