Hundreds of festival-goers trying to leave the coast on Sunday found the Likoni-Lunga Lunga highway at a standstill. Police checkpoints sprang up near the Dongo Kundu bypass just after midday, forcing every matatu and private car off the tarmac for searches.
By late afternoon, the queue stretched so far back that frustrated drivers switched off their engines and sat on bonnets, unsure when they would move again.
The jam rippled all the way to Miritini SGR terminus, where the 3 p.m. Standard Gauge Railway service pulled out half-empty. Dozens still stuck on the road watched videos of the train they had paid for, but never boarded, while fielding worried calls from Nairobi bosses.
Things only got worse after sunset. Kenya Railways issued a late-night notice scrapping its 10 p.m. Madaraka Express from Mombasa to Nairobi. “We regret to notify members of the public that due to technical issues, the Madaraka Express 10 PM passenger train from Mombasa to Nairobi has been suspended,” the statement read. The corporation apologised but offered no timeline for restoring the popular night service.
The knock-on effect hit air travellers too. Moi International Airport reported a spike in no-shows as the gridlock made it impossible for some passengers to reach evening departures. Several domestic flights took off with empty seats, leaving irate holiday-makers to hunt for last-minute hotel rooms.
Police insisted the checkpoints were routine safety checks ahead of Monday’s Saba Saba commemoration in Nairobi. Officers at the scene declined to explain why inspections focused on buses plastered with Diani SummerTides wrist-bands.
One user on X, activist Hussein Khalid, called the dragnet an attack on freedom of movement, but his post was drowned out by hundreds of stranded youth live-streaming their own ordeal.
Now police are curtailing freedom of movement! Nkt!
Hundreds of youth from Nairobi who had attended the Diani Summer Tide Festival have been stopped at the Dongo Kundu bypass near Likoni, Mombasa.
They were to catch the 2pm SGR to Nairobi but they have been stopped by police… pic.twitter.com/30zilVarIW
— husseinkhalid (@husskhalid) July 6, 2025
Business owners along the coast echoed her concern. Hoteliers who had banked on a brisk Sunday turnover instead handed out discounted rooms to guests who never planned to stay an extra night. Several matatu crews, meanwhile, slept in their vehicles, unwilling to abandon passengers or lose tomorrow’s Nairobi bookings.
As police insist there was nothing extraordinary about this particular roadblock, many suspect authorities did not take the ‘Ruto Must Go’ chants at the festival lightly. Here’s a clip of that.
Chants of #RutoMustGo at the Summertides beach festival in Diani last night. pic.twitter.com/DKSdFh3Eqy
— Cyprian, Is Nyakundi (@C_NyaKundiH) July 5, 2025
