NAKURU, Kenya — Five people died on Sunday night after a saloon car collided head-on with an Easy Coach bus at Kikopey in Gilgil, Nakuru County, along the Nakuru-Naivasha highway.
Gilgil Sub-County Police Commander Winstone Mwakio confirmed that the crash occurred when the private vehicle, carrying six occupants, collided with the bus. The bus was travelling toward Nakuru, while the saloon car was headed toward Nairobi.
One survivor sustained serious injuries and is receiving treatment at Nakuru Level 5 Hospital. The bodies of those who died have been moved to PNN Funeral Home.
Preliminary reports indicate the bus had been overtaking other vehicles on the busy stretch of highway at the time of the collision. Police say investigations into the exact cause of the crash are ongoing.
Among those in the saloon car were members of a family travelling from Kisumu to Nairobi, a week after burying their mother.
According to family member James Wegesa, the group included his wife and their three-year-old daughter, his brother, his brother’s wife and child, and one other relative.
Wegesa, who was not in the vehicle, told Vivid Voice News that he learned of the crash after calling his wife’s phone, only for a police officer to answer and ask him to come to the station.
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“I just had a small family, my wife and daughter. I am left alone. I am a driver by profession; drivers tend to be careless…. My family was climbing uphill, then the bus was going down on the climbing lane. Someone who was not careful has done this to me,” Wegesa said.
The Kikopey area of the Nakuru-Naivasha highway has been the site of repeated fatal accidents in recent years, with road safety advocates and local leaders having previously called for interventions along the corridor, including better signage, speed enforcement and stricter action against dangerous overtaking on its inclines and curves.
Police say investigations into Sunday’s crash continue, and further details are expected once initial findings are complete.
