Kenya Road Deaths Near 4,000 This Year as Safety Agency Seeks National Emergency
Pedestrians make up the largest share of the dead, and recent crashes on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, including a church bus disaster, have added to the toll.
See where this is ›NAIROBI, Kenya —
Kenya recorded 3,995 road deaths from Jan. 1 to Oct. 4, a 9.2 percent rise from 3,657 in the same period last year, according to National Transport and Safety Authority figures reported Oct. 29 by the Daily Nation.
See where this is ›Pedestrians were the largest group killed, at 1,490, followed by 1,061 motorcyclists, 662 passengers and 352 drivers. The figures do not include late-October crashes on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, among them the Oct. 25 collision of a church bus and a lorry at Kanga, near Mtito Andei in Makueni County. At least 22 people died in that crash, the Nation reported, including Pastor Joseph Vura, Apostle Fonex Paul and Pastor Isaac Juma. On Oct. 3, 17 people, most of them Catholic pilgrims, were killed at Salama on the same highway after a lorry driver's failed attempt to overtake, police said.
The safety agency has called for road safety to be declared a national emergency or disaster, with road agencies fixing dangerous stretches, police enforcing traffic laws, counties improving pedestrian facilities and hospitals strengthening trauma care. Dr. Andrew Kipalgat, the agency's director of road safety, said it has stepped up enforcement of night-time traffic violations.
“Ideally, we should have separation of traffic, at least those flowing in one direction,” Kipalgat said. Parts of the Nairobi-Mombasa highway carry opposing traffic on a single carriageway.
See where this is ›The agency has identified more than 270 crash black spots nationwide, 199 of them on the Mombasa-Malaba Northern Corridor. Kenya's statistics bureau counted 5,009 road deaths in 2025, up from 4,748 in 2024, and the transport authority has estimated crashes cost the country about 450 billion shillings a year.
