Kenya: 24 killed as bus and truck collide head-on
The passengers were returning from a funeral. President Ruto ordered inspections of all public service vehicles, three weeks after another deadly crash.
Symbolic image · Photo: Mikenjau / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
At least 24 people were killed and about 24 injured when a bus and a truck collided head-on on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway in Makueni County on Sunday morning. Authorities blamed "improper overtaking." A passenger said the truck tried to overtake the bus, met oncoming traffic and lost control.
The bus was carrying people returning to Mombasa from a pastor's funeral in western Kenya. President William Ruto offered condolences and ordered inspections of all public service vehicles. The transport safety authority is calling for road crashes to be declared a national emergency.
The crash came about three weeks after an accident on the same highway killed 17 people. An estimated 20,000 crashes in Kenya claim more than 5,000 lives each year.