Tears and grief as families identify Naivasha crash victims
By Antony Gitonga, January 6, 2026Families of the nine people who died in the Naivasha road accident on Monday, January 4, 2025, have pointed an accusing finger at the Ministry of Transport for the rising cases of fatal accidents in the country.
The families and survivors of the accident noted that the situation had been worsened by defective PSVs, which were ferrying passengers at night to avoid traffic police officers.
This came as the painful process of identifying those who died in the accident involving a Greenline bus and a matatu started at the Naivasha sub-county hospital mortuary on Tuesday, January 6, 2026.
During the process, some relatives fainted on viewing the bodies of their loved ones, while others were left in tears as they tried to come to terms with the losses.
The accident occurred after the bus, which was destined for Nairobi from Western Kenya, rammed head-on into the incoming matatu killing six adults and three minors near Karai centre in Naivasha.
Faith Auma, who lost her three-year-old son, narrated how the driver of the ill-fated bus ignored their pleas along the way to stop speeding.
She said that several passengers approached the driver along the route, but he ignored their pleas, saying that he had a deadline to beat.
“The driver decided to overtake carelessly in the process, ramming into the incoming matatu, and I lost my only child,” she said after escaping with slight injuries.
On his part, Joseph Kundu, who lost a relative in the accident, said that the Ministry of Transport had failed as accidents continued to take the lives of Kenyans daily.
Kundu noted that cases of speeding and driving while under the influence were the order of the day among bus drivers in the country.
“We have noticed an increase in the number of accidents, mainly now when children are going back to school, but the Ministry has kept quiet and taken no action,” he said.
This was echoed by Gabriel Juma, who also lost a kin, noting that the crackdowns by NTSA and traffic officers were ineffective.
“The conditions of some of these buses are bad, and that is why they are travelling at night, resulting in fatal accidents,” he said.
Another relative, Augustine Michele, told of the pain of losing his 14-year-old niece, who was travelling from Kimilili to Nairobi.
“This marks one of the darkest days in my life as I have lost a niece that I really loved through a road accident that could have been avoided,” he said.