A family returning to Nairobi after burying their matriarch in Kisumu was plunged into grief on Sunday night when five of its members died in a head-on collision at the Kikopey area in Gilgil, Nakuru County.

The fatal crash occurred along the busy Nakuru-Naivasha highway when a private saloon car carrying six family members collided directly with an oncoming Easy Coach passenger bus.

Gilgil Sub-County Police Commander Winstone Mwakio confirmed the accident, noting that four occupants died on the spot while one victim succumbed during emergency response efforts.

Preliminary reports and eyewitness accounts indicate that the passenger bus was travelling downhill toward Nakuru on a climbing lane while carelessly overtaking other vehicles before slamming into the family’s car.

Among the deceased were siblings, their spouses, and two young children.

A sole survivor from the car sustained severe injuries and is currently receiving critical treatment at the Nakuru Level 5 Hospital.

In a heartbreaking account, James Wegesa, a driver by profession, recounted losing his entire immediate family in the midnight disaster.

His wife, 3-year-old child, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and another relative were all aboard the vehicle.

“I just had a small family, my wife and daughter. Now I am left alone,” a grief-stricken Wegesa told reporters, recalling how his call to his wife’s mobile phone was answered by a police officer directing him to the station.

“My family was climbing uphill when the bus descended on the climbing lane. Someone who was careless has done this to me.”

The bodies of the five victims have been moved to the PNN Funeral Home pending postmortem examinations, while the involved vehicles were towed to the police station yard as multi-agency investigations continue.