At 6.45am on Sunday, Pastor Joseph Vura called his assistant, Joseph Matia, to say he would be late for the morning prayer service at the Campaign for Salvation and Healing Ministry (Cashem) in Mombasa.
He asked Pastor Matia to continue with the service, explaining that another pastor would join them because the school in Miritini where he held services had been closed for national examinations.
The conversation was cheerful. Pastor Vura spoke about the journey from Kakamega and the fellow clergy accompanying him on the bus. Each pastor, he said, had left his congregation under the care of an assistant.
Bishop Tee Nalo (centre), Reverend Simon Menza (right) and other Mombasa Pastors Fellowship officials address the press on October 25, 2026, following the deaths of their members in the fatal bus-truck collision at Mtito Andei.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation Media Group
“During the call, he was extremely happy. He told me about the journey and the pastors he was travelling with. He said all the pastors in the bus had left their churches under the care of their assistants. Little did I know he was passing a message,” Pastor Matia told the Nation.
A few hours later, an assistant pastor arrived with news of a horrific road accident at Kanga, near Mtito Andei along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway. More than 20 people, including pastors, had died.
Then Pastor Vura’s wife called to ask whether he had heard about the crash. Moments later, another pastor confirmed the devastating news: their spiritual father was among those killed.
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
“At the church, we did not break the news to the congregants. It was too heavy for us. We continued with our prayer service, but the news had already spread. Our hearts sank, and we are so sad we do not know how we will move on,” Pastor Matia said.
At Grace Healing Centre, another congregation was confronting similar grief. Its pastor, Isaac Juma, had also called his assistant before the journey, asking him to take care of the church.
The calls, initially ordinary exchanges between pastors preparing for Sunday worship, had become some families’ final memories of their loved ones.
The clergy were returning from Kakamega, where they had attended the burial of Bishop Isaiah Kiganane at Marakusi village. Their journey home ended in tragedy when their bus collided with a truck near Kanga at about 7.45am.
The bus was carrying 52 people. Twenty-four died, while several others sustained injuries.
Bishop Zachariah Mwagandi, head of Glorious River Church International in Mombasa, said the group had debated whether to leave Kakamega on Saturday or spend another night before travelling to the Coast. They eventually agreed to leave at about 4pm and travel through the night.
The passengers stopped for breakfast at Mtito Andei at around 7am. The crash occurred barely 15 minutes after they resumed their journey.
“We were in high spirits when we left for Mombasa. We even agreed to head straight to the home of the late bishop where we had started our journey on Thursday,” Bishop Mwagandi recalled.
The bus overturned, throwing passengers from the wreckage in Tsavo West National Park. Survivors struggled to free fellow passengers and search for missing relatives.
A police report indicated that the bus was attempting to overtake a line of vehicles when the accident happened.
The wreckage of the bus that collided with a lorry at Kanga in Mtito Andei on October 25, 2026. Twenty-two people were killed in the crash.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation Media Group
“The driver lost control of the bus and landed on the right side. The bus skidded on the road in the opposite direction. In the process, it collided with the truck, ripping half of its roof,” Makueni County Commissioner Abdullahi Khalif said.
The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) said preliminary findings suggested that improper overtaking may have contributed to the crash.
The Nation established that the bus driver had driven continuously for more than 16 hours from Lugari Constituency in Kakamega County without another driver to relieve him.
Mtito Andei Sub-County Referral Hospital Medical Superintendent Paul Kusienya attends to Cosmas Nyangweso, a pastor who was in the bus that collided with a truck at Kanga on the Mombasa-Nairobi highway on October 25, 2026.
Photo credit: Pius Maundu | Nation Media Group
Pastor Cosmas Nyangweso, who survived the crash, said fatigue could have played a role.
“The driver drove all the way from Lugari Constituency in Kakamega County. He had no one else to assist him. He must have suffered from fatigue,” he said.
Other survivors defended the driver, saying he had been careful. Bishop Mwagandi recalled joking with him about the bus’s speed, only for the driver to assure him that he would not exceed 70 kilometres per hour because of speed cameras along the highway.
Reverend Spenza Mdave of Voice of Faith Church in Malindi helped evacuate passengers from the wreckage. But despite surviving, he remained distressed because he did not know the fate of his four children who had travelled with him.
He had started the journey with five grown-up children, but one alighted in Nairobi. The remaining four continued towards Malindi to reunite with their mother.
“They insisted they wanted to meet their mother in Malindi,” he said.
Violet Mwandonyi, a relative of the late Bishop Kiganane, was also desperately searching for her two grown-up children who had been on the bus.
At Mtito Andei Sub-County Referral Hospital, medical superintendent Paul Kusienya said miss-ing personal belongings and identification documents had complicated the identification of some victims.
Spencer Mdavi, a survivor of the Power of the Word Church bus crash that killed 24 people at Mtito Andei after being discharged from Mtito Andei Sub-County Hospital on October 25, 2026.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
Makueni County Medical Services Chief Officer Alex Makau said 19 people died at the scene, while five others succumbed to their injuries in hospital. Ambulances took survivors to hospitals in Mtito Andei, Kambu and Makindu.
The Mombasa Pastors Fellowship appealed to the government to airlift victims requiring specialised treatment, waive hospital bills and provide financial assistance to bereaved families.
The tragedy has also renewed concerns about safety on the busy Mombasa-Nairobi highway, coming barely three weeks after 17 Catholic pilgrims died in a collision involving a truck near Salama in Makueni County.
The repeated crashes have revived calls for the government to upgrade the highway to a dual carriageway and strengthen enforcement of traffic regulations.
President William Ruto described the crash as a painful loss, offered condolences to the bereaved families and wished the injured a quick recovery. He urged public service vehicle drivers to observe traffic rules and directed authorities to ensure thorough inspections of such vehicles.
Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir said the ministry would engage the Judiciary, Parliament and Senate to address implementation challenges relating to the Commercial Vehicle Regulations 2026, Vehicle Inspection Regulations 2026 and School Transport Regulations 2026.
NTSA Director-General Nashon Kondiwa said the scale of road deaths warranted urgent action, proposing that road crashes be declared a national disaster to mobilise resources and coordinate responses across government agencies.
