There was a sombre mood at Mtito Andei Sub-County Referral Hospital in Makueni County on Monday as families identified loved ones who perished in Sunday’s road accident at Kanga along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway.
Medics struggled to console relatives of the 24 people who died when a bus collided with a truck, as the scale of the tragedy sank in.
The accident has plunged several churches in Mombasa into mourning. The bus was returning to the coastal city after carrying mourners to the funeral of Bishop Isaiah Kiganane at Marakusi village in Kakamega County.
According to Rev Elijah Waini, secretary-general of the Mombasa Pastors’ Fellowship, which organised the trip, four of those who died were pastors drawn from different evangelical churches.
“After the morticians are done with the postmortem, we shall transfer the bodies to Mombasa at the request of the affected families,” Mr Waini told reporters outside the hospital mortuary.
Members of the Grace Healing Centre Church immersed in prayer following the deaths of their members in the fatal bus-truck collision at Mtito Andei.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation
Among the dead was Angeline Saba, a niece of the late Bishop Kiganane, who operated a shop in Ukunda Township, Kwale County.
For her younger brother, Michael Mosala, her death has left a void that words can barely capture. She was not just his sister but also the mother figure who had helped raise him, a grandmother whose name she carried and a wife in the symbolic sense of their family’s deeply intertwined relationships.
“She meant everything to me. Apart from being my sister, she acted like my mother to me. She once carried me on her back as a child. She was named after my grandmother, Saba. So, she was my grandmother. I am named after my grandmother, Mwasala. Since Saba was the wife of Mwasala, she was my wife. So, literally I have lost four people in one. I have lost a wife, a grandmother, a mother and a sister,” he said.
The bus and cement truck that were involved in an accident that killed at least 22 people, are parked at Mtito Andei police station, Makueni County, Kenya, October 25, 2026.
Photo credit: Reuters
Mr Mosala, a tour operator who sustained head and chest injuries in the accident, was recovering at Makindu Sub-County Hospital yesterday. He believes the crash could have been avoided had the driver rested after the funeral.
He said the group had initially agreed to travel back to Mombasa on Sunday morning, but some pastors on the bus changed the plans at the last minute, opting to leave immediately after the funeral.
“We had agreed to travel on Sunday morning. However, a team of pastors who were on the bus made a last-minute change. They forced us to travel back immediately after the funeral. They argued that they needed to attend Sunday services in their churches, which are based in Mombasa,” he said.
Mr Mosala believes the decision to leave immediately may have contributed to the tragedy, although the circumstances surrounding the crash remain subject to investigation.
The National Transport and Safety Authority said the driver lost control of the bus while attempting to overtake a fleet of vehicles when the accident occurred.
Gilbert Madegwa, who lost his wife, Joan Khatera Nyangweso, and son, Gift Mwashi, in the Mtito Andei crash on October 25, 2026.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
Gilbert Madegwa, a truck driver, said the news brought a devastating end to what should have been an ordinary journey to Kampala. He lost his wife, Joan Nyangweso, and their four-year-old son, Gift Mwashi Maunya, in the crash.
He was on his way to Kampala when he learnt of their deaths through a WhatsApp group of truck drivers.
“My heart skipped a beat when I learned that the accident involved a church bus which was travelling from a funeral at Lugari Constituency in Kakamega County,” he said.
As families grappled with the loss, the Makueni County government moved to ease the financial burden of the tragedy by waiving hospital bills, mortuary fees and postmortem charges.
Announcing the waivers at Makindu Sub-County Referral Hospital, Deputy Governor Lucy Mulili urged the national government to revamp Makindu Trauma Centre, which treats many victims of road accidents along the busy Mombasa-Nairobi highway.
The wreckage of the Power of the Word Church bus which was involved in a fatal collision with a Mombasa Cement truck at Mtito Andei on October 24, 2026.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
Governor Mutula Kilonzo Junior called for the expansion of the highway, saying the tragedy underscored the urgency of improving road safety.
“This tragedy highlights the need for the national government to urgently dual the Mombasa-Nairobi highway, a critical intervention to improve road safety, reduce head-on collisions and prevent further loss of life. Our roads are meant to connect lives, not become corridors of grief,” he said.
His appeal came as Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir outlined a raft of measures to improve road safety, including better management of blackspots, enhanced traffic management and tighter oversight of commercial and public service vehicles.
But for the families who gathered at the hospital to identify their loved ones, the immediate concern was more personal: coming to terms with lives cut short and making arrangements to lay them to rest.
