Scores of passengers were left injured on Sunday after a Climax Coaches bus overturned at Kapmakaa in Chepsir, along the busy Nakuru-Eldoret Highway in Kericho County, sparking alarm over road safety on most critical transport corridors.
The accident occurred on the afternoon of May 17, when the passenger bus reportedly veered off the road and rolled, leaving the vehicle lying on its side with passengers scattered along the roadside. Images from the scene showed injured passengers strewn on the ground as desperate bystanders rushed to their aid.
“There has been a deadly accident that just happened at Chepsir, and people traveling on that route, please travel with caution,” warned one witness, Koech Manasseh, in a post that quickly circulated online.
The cause of the accident remains under investigation. The absence of any other vehicle at the scene effectively rules out a head-on collision. Preliminary reports suggest the bus may have lost control before rolling at the Chepsir stretch near Mau Summit — a section of highway known for its difficult terrain, including fog-prone areas near the Mau escarpment.
Rescue teams from Canaan Hospital, Kipkelion, and the Kericho County government later arrived at the scene to evacuate the injured to hospital for treatment. Some social media accounts reported fatalities, writing that some passengers had died on the spot. However, by the time of publication, police had not issued an official statement confirming any deaths.
The incident has once again put Climax Coaches under the spotlight. The company has been linked to at least four major accidents in the past year alone, including a fatal head-on collision in Naivasha in December that claimed the life of former Lugari Member of Parliament Cyrus Jirongo, and a separate overturn at the Kimende blackspot in May of the same year that injured at least 20 passengers.
The latest crash adds to a growing national crisis. Data from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) and the National Police Service show that in the first month of this year alone, Kenya recorded 854 road accidents, resulting in 2,032 victims and claiming at least 398 lives.
The NTSA, in collaboration with the National Police Service, recently stepped up enforcement along major routes including the Nairobi-Eldoret and Nairobi-Nakuru highways, deploying speed cameras, mobile courts, and sobriety checkpoints.
Today’s accident raises hard questions about whether those efforts are enough — and whether bus companies like Climax Coaches are being held to the standards that Kenyans travelling these roads deserve.
Investigations are expected to begin once authorities secure the scene and the bus is recovered.
