On Tuesday, seven people—among them six Mbihi Friends Girls High School students—lost their lives in two separate road accidents.

The students perished on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway while travelling from Western Kenya to Nairobi. Elsewhere, the driver of a 14-seater matatu died on the spot when the vehicle rammed a lorry at Kenol trading centre in Murang’a county.

The loss of the young lives come barely three weeks since 18 other persons, among them nine students and three staffers of Pwani University died in a road accident when their bus collided with a matatu on the same highway, leaving 80 other travellers injured and hospitalised. The Tuesday accidents caught the attention of President William Ruto who directed the ministries of Interior and Transport to take remedial action. According to the President, the traffic code must be enforced in a manner that enhances road safety especially during the long rains season. There was similar concerns in the Senate as well as the National Assembly yesterday.

The sentiments expressed by the Cabinet and by other leaders are easily representative of majority of helpless Kenyans who can only mourn the deceased.

But daily loss of lives cannot be curtailed by mere expressions of shock, concern and sending of messages of condolences. Urgent action is required. With the Judiciary also playing its part, all the three arms of  government must stand up to this national challenge and commit to halt it. For many years now, the persons who lead the institutions that are constitutionally charged with maintaining order in the transport sector have come to make it look like road accidents can only take place during the annual Christmas and Easter holiday seasons. That is when the State agencies responsible will warn motorists to be careful as they deploy their officers and all manner of gadgets on the roads to tame traffic offenders.

The officers then vanish from the roads and the accident cycle continues, followed by the usual the knee-jerk reactions from the bureaucrats. That is what happened yesterday when Roads minister Kipchumba Murkomen and his Education counterpart Ezekiel Machogu released a list of safety measures to the public following an outrcy. But it should be noted the regulations are not new. They have been in existence. The challenge is laxity, lack of consistency in enforcement as well as individual responsibility of road users.