Five people died on Sunday night after a head-on collision between an Easy Coach bus and a saloon car at Kikopey along the Gilgil-Nakuru highway in Nakuru County, among at least 16 people killed in road accidents reported across the country that same day.
Gilgil Sub-County Police Commander Winstone Mwakio confirmed that the crash occurred at around 11pm on September 13, involving a Mercedes-Benz PSV bus travelling from Gilgil towards Nakuru and a Toyota IST saloon car carrying six occupants and heading in the opposite direction towards Nairobi.
Police said the bus driver failed to keep to his lane and drifted onto the acceleration lane, resulting in the head-on impact. Preliminary reports also suggest the bus had been overtaking other vehicles on the busy road shortly before the collision.
Four occupants of the saloon car, two female adults and two juveniles, died at the scene, while the vehicle’s driver, initially rushed to St Joseph Hospital with serious injuries, later succumbed while receiving treatment, bringing the confirmed death toll to five.
One other occupant of the saloon car survived with serious injuries and is being treated at Nakuru Level 5 Hospital. The bodies were moved to PNN Funeral Home for preservation, pending identification and postmortem examinations, while both vehicles were towed to Gilgil Police Station and detained pending inspection as investigations continue.
The victims were travelling home to Nairobi from Kisumu, where they had buried a family member just a week earlier. In an emotional account, family member James Wegesa said his wife, daughter, brother and other relatives were among those in the vehicle.
“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. He recalled trying to call his wife after the crash, only for a police officer to answer the phone and ask him to come to the station.
The Kikopey stretch of the Gilgil-Nakuru highway has become a recurring accident hotspot in recent years. In January this year, five people died at the scene when a 14-seater matatu collided with a trailer just days into the new year.
In September 2025, the same general area was the scene of an even deadlier crash near Kariandusi, when a matatu carrying members of a single family collided head-on with a trailer while attempting to overtake, leaving 16 people dead, 13 at the scene and three more who later succumbed to their injuries in hospital.
Sunday’s crash was one of several fatal road accidents reported nationally over the same 24-hour period, which police say left at least 16 people dead in total, among them five passengers, six pedestrians, four riders and a driver, with a further 15 people left seriously injured, including eight pedestrians, five riders and two pillion passengers.
Police have also flagged a continuing rise in pedestrian deaths despite an ongoing road safety campaign, noting that some victims are struck and killed near footbridges after opting not to use them, a pattern authorities say they are now addressing partly through arrests of pedestrians who avoid the bridges. Fatal accidents have continued to climb nationally even as the campaign to curb them continues.
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