A Sunday morning journey home turned into a nightmare for members of the Power of the Word International Church in Mombasa, when the bus ferrying them back from a pastoral burial in western Kenya was involved in a catastrophic collision along the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway.
The crash occurred at around 7.45 am near Kanga, close to Mtito Andei, when a lorry struck the church bus from behind.
The death toll has since climbed to 24 after an additional victim succumbed to injuries while receiving treatment in hospital.
Another 24 people were wounded and rushed to Makueni and Kibwezi sub-county hospitals. Makueni’s chief officer for medical services, Alex Makau, confirmed that four of the injured later died in hospital.
“Eleven were referred to Makindu and two were referred to Coast General,” he said.
Reverend Spencer Mdave narrates moments before the Kanga accident
Among those who walked away from the wreckage was Reverend Spencer Mdave, who described the terrifying seconds before and after the impact.
“I heard a loud bang and saw as if the bus toppled and flew, but later I saw a trailer in the bush that had hit us from behind. Those who got hurt were the people sitting on the back seats; those of us who were at the front only sustained minor bruises, and some have already returned home,” he said.
Beyond his own injuries, Reverend Mdave suffered a devastating personal loss — four of his relatives perished in the crash.
Twisted metal, broken glass, and personal belongings strewn across the roadside painted a grim picture of the collision’s force. Back in Mombasa, congregation members gathered at the Power of the Word International Church to pray and mourn their fellow worshippers, many still struggling to process the magnitude of what had happened.
The crash has reignited urgent calls for the government to treat road carnage as a national emergency.
Moreover, the National Transport and Safety Authority has been pushing for road accidents to be formally declared a national disaster, noting that Kenya records roughly 20,000 road crashes each year, with over 5,000 people losing their lives annually.
In response to the tragedy, the Ministry of Roads announced a series of measures aimed at reversing the trend, including dedicated funding for road safety infrastructure, stricter enforcement against dangerous driving behaviour, and improved training and supervision of commercial and public service vehicle drivers.
