At least 10 people have lost their lives following a road accident along the Kisii-Kisumu highway around Chabera Rachuonyo East Sub-County in Homabay County.
The accident occurred on the night of Sunday, December 14, and involved two lorries and a private van travelling from Kakamega towards Nyamira.
Police say that the casualties were members of the same family on their way home in Nyamaiya, Nyamira North, after attending a wedding ceremony in Kakamega County.
Several others were injured and rushed to different facilities in the area, including Agoro Sare Hospital and Matata Nursing Home in Oyugis town.
Homabay Governor Gladys Wanga, while sending her condolences to the families that lost their loved ones, vowed the county would give necessary support to the injured and the bereaved families. She also urged road users to exercise extreme caution and stay safe.
“I have directed all county emergency services to coordinate with national authorities for rescue operations and to provide full support to the injured and bereaved families. A thorough investigation into the cause is underway,” she stated.
The Chabera crash comes amid growing concern over a surge in fatal road accidents across the country in recent days.
On Saturday night, December 13, eight people were killed in Nyamira County after a matatu collided with a trailer in another deadly crash.
Also, in another tragedy, in the early hours of Saturday, former Lugari Member of Parliament Cyrus Jirongo died in a separate road accident at Karai along the Nairobi–Nakuru Highway after his vehicle collided head-on with a bus.
The back-to-back tragedies have once again drawn attention to the country’s road safety record, which continued to worsen despite ongoing awareness campaigns.
According to the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), as of early December 2025, 4,458 people had lost their lives in road accidents, a figure that had already surpassed the total of 4,311 deaths recorded throughout the entire year of 2024.
NTSA linked most of the accidents to unsafe road behaviour, including overspeeding, driver fatigue, drunk driving, dangerous overtaking, and lane indiscipline.
Pedestrians remained the most vulnerable road users, accounting for the highest number of deaths, followed by motorcyclists and their passengers.
The authority estimated that road crashes cost the country between 3% and 5% of its gross domestic product annually and continued to urge motorists and all road users to exercise caution, ensure their vehicles are roadworthy, and strictly adhere to traffic rules, warning that road safety is a shared responsibility.
