At least 22 killed when bus and truck collide on Kenya's Nairobi-Mombasa highway

A bus collided with a truck on Kenya's main highway on Sunday morning, October 25, 2026, killing at least 22 people, police said. The highway links the capital, Nairobi, with the coastal city of Mombasa. The crash came three weeks after 17 people died in another accident along the same road. Police said the injured were receiving treatment; Paul Kisienya, medical superintendent at Mtito Andei hospital, said about 24 people were hurt and most were taken there. Makueni County Commissioner Abdullahi Khalif said the death toll could rise. The passengers were reportedly returning to Mombasa from the funeral of their church pastor in western Kenya. The circumstances remain unclear. A passenger, Spenza Mudave, said a truck hit the bus from behind and it rolled, while the National Transport Safety Authority had suspected improper overtaking based on information that the vehicles collided head-on. The authority also said the stretch is a designated "accident black spot" and that recommendations had been made to address safety concerns. Speeding and poor road conditions have previously been cited in Kenyan road accidents.

NBC News, on the left, leads with the crash and the earlier accident in its headline, and builds the story around people on the ground: hospital official Kisienya, survivor Violet Mwandonyi, who said she does not know the fate of her two children, and passenger Mudave. It reports the 24 injured, the breakfast stop at Mtito Andei and the safety authority's overtaking suspicion. It does not mention the "black spot" designation or Khalif's warning about the toll. The New York Post, on the right, uses a police-attributed headline stressing the weeks-earlier accident and relies on police, Khalif and the safety authority. It includes the "accident black spot" designation and the recommendations, but gives no survivor accounts, no injury figure and no cause theories. Both agree on the 22 deaths, the 17 earlier deaths, the funeral trip and the unclear circumstances. The Hindu largely matches the right-leaning text.