Fifteen killed, 14 injured in three-vehicle crash on Kericho-Kaplong Road

*Event date: April 5, 2025.*

A crash on the Kericho-Kaplong Road in Bomet County left 15 people dead and 14 others injured after three vehicles collided in the Cheptakulge area near Daraja Sita, according to police and local reporting.

The collision happened at about 3:30pm and involved a lorry, a matatu and a private Mazda car. In the early account cited by TUKO.co.ke, Bomet Traffic Commandant Amos Namasaka said police suspected reckless driving as the likely cause while investigators continued to piece together what happened before the impact.

The scale of the losses quickly turned the scene into a mass-casualty response. The report said six of the injured were taken to St. Clare's Kaplong Mission Hospital, five were moved to Tenwek Hospital and three were taken to Litein AIC Hospital for emergency care. The bodies of the dead were later transported to Kapkatet Sub-County Hospital for the required procedures.

The vehicle mix helped explain why the crash was so destructive. A heavy lorry, a matatu and a smaller private car were all involved, and the police account pointed to the private car as the vehicle carrying passengers from a celebration. The report did not establish a final cause, but it said officers had begun processing the wreckage and investigating the circumstances that led to the collision.

Local reaction also turned quickly toward road safety. Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok issued condolences, while residents in the area called for more caution from drivers and stronger enforcement in known blackspot areas. Those appeals reflected a familiar concern on busy inter-county roads where high speed, dense traffic and limited margin for error can turn a single mistake into a large-scale tragedy.

For now, the confirmed facts are stark: 15 people died, 14 were injured and three vehicles were left wrecked on one of the county's key routes. Police said the inquiry remained open as officers worked to determine how the crash unfolded and whether reckless driving was the decisive factor.

The casualty pattern also suggests a response that had to be spread across multiple hospitals at once. With injured victims sent to three facilities, the crash quickly became a county-level emergency rather than a single-scene incident, and the wrecked vehicles remained part of an open investigation. The report did not give a passenger count for each vehicle, so it is not possible to say from the evidence packet how many people were inside the lorry, the matatu or the private car.

The road context matters too. The report described a county route where buses, lorries and private vehicles all share the same space, which helps explain why a single mistake can cascade into a multi-vehicle disaster. The initial police suspicion is not a final conclusion, but it does point to a crash that officers believed could have been prevented with more careful driving and better speed discipline.

The event date is April 5, 2025, and the available evidence supports a traffic disaster with immediate hospital transfers, a large death toll and an active police investigation.