The matatu which was involved in an accident in Bomet on Monday killing five people was overloaded.
Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen told the Senate House plenary that the matatu was also carrying four bags of maize.
The overloading and the extra loads it was carrying might have contributed greatly to the accident.
The matatu which is licensed to carry 14 passengers was having 24 people on board; 10 extra people.
The accident happened along Olonguruone-Silibwet Road in Bomet County involving a matatu and a tractor left 18 injured.
The CS is now calling on Kenyans to exercise citizen responsibility even as the government does its best to tame the problem of road carnage in the country.
“As individuals, citizen responsibility is extremely important. The matatu that got an accident in the Olonguruone-Silibwet Road had 24 people which is 10 people extra and it was carrying four bags of maize,” Murkomen said.
"By the time the 15th person, 16th,17th and 18th was boarding that matatu they knew of course that it was overloaded. We cannot act as citizens that we are ignorant of the fact that you sit in a car, the driver is drunk, or over speeding or is already overloaded."
"We also need to take responsibility ourselves as passengers but more importantly those who are sitting behind the wheel," the CS cautioned.
He said the accidents being recorded on the roads cross the country are causing a strain on the healthcare system.
The 18 injured people in the Bomet accident were admitted to Tenwek Mission Hospital.
In a similar incident, some critically injured Kenyatta University students were on Tuesday airlifted to Parklands Avenue Hospital in Nairobi.
They're among 42 students who were injured after their bus collided with a trailer at Pipeline near Maungu along the Mombasa Nairobi highway.
The Monday evening accident killed 11 other students.
Since January to February 2024, road accidents across the country have claimed 649 lives, the National Transport and Safety Authority said.
The statistics are an increase compared to the 623 recorded during the same period in 2023.
Pedestrians lead in fatalities at 252, compared with 190 recorded last year.