Postmortems for 17 Makueni crash victims set for Sunday

Sultan Hamud Hospital administrator Dr Stephen Mwangangi said the victims' families have already arrived at the facility ahead of the exercise.

According to Mwangangi, once the postmortem examinations are completed, the bodies will be transported to Mombasa County.

Meanwhile, one person who sustained serious head injuries in the accident remains admitted at the Makueni County Referral Hospital, where they are receiving treatment.

The 17 victims were Catholic pilgrims travelling to the National Shrine in Subukia for National Prayer Day when the accident occurred in the Salama area in the early hours of Saturday.

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) said several other people were injured in the crash, which involved several vehicles along the busy Nairobi-Mombasa Highway.

The authority dispatched a team to the scene to investigate the circumstances surrounding the accident and assess the condition of the vehicles involved.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa confirmed that those killed were pilgrims travelling to Subukia.

The accident occurred along a section of the highway that NTSA has identified as a black spot, with the authority saying it had previously made road safety recommendations concerning the area.

President William Ruto also sent his condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives.

Kenya officially records about 4,000 road deaths annually, although the government's road safety action plan estimates that the actual toll could be significantly higher due to underreporting.