Meet the glamourous stewards inside new Standard Gauge Railway train carriages
Mary Mukono, Monicah Wanjiru and Teresiah Wamuyu look every inch the air hostesses on any international airliner.
In their resplendent black, red and yellow uniforms, including matching headgear, they ooze confidence and unbridled spirit as they usher passengers on board.
However, the three are not part of an air crew. They are the new faces of the Standard Gauge Railway passenger train crew.
They are part of close to a 120 strong crew members who will be constant faces on every passenger train plying the Nairobi-Mombasa route.
It is not an all-female crew. It has young men too, smart in their white shirts and blue jackets.
This is the team that will tell future generations about their pioneering spirit of the new train service.
Having undergone a two-month course at the Railway Training Institute, they have the heavy responsibility of ensuring that more than 1,200 passengers per trip step our of the train with memorable experiences.
On Monday, Mary and her colleagues were on hand to welcome on board 60 local and international journalists who were travelling to Mombasa for the official launch of the SGR passenger and cargo trains.
With dazzling smiles, they stood like sentries at the entrance as passengers streamed into the train, subtly communicating with their superiors through earpieces and lapel microphones.
Once the last passenger boarded, two waited on each coach, helping with the baggage and answering pertinent questions from the inquisitive journalists.
For Mary, who used the old locomotives for the first time last year, the new train has raised the local public transportation system a notch higher.
“Kenya is growing and must adopt international standards of operations,” she says. “I have every reason to believe that this is among the few passenger trains with such a crew in the continent. It will change the face of travel as we know it.”
Mary grew up in rolling hills of Mathioya in Muranga County. Even in her wildest imagination, she did not dream that she would be taking charge of train passengers in Kenya’s newest train.
“I had a very negative view of trains; having used the old trains which were not built with passenger comfort in mind. They had no dining tables, and no colourful crew,” she says.
According to Wycliffe Otoki, the assistant crew instructor, the team is on the train to ensure all passengers enjoy the ride, and assist those with special needs.
Mr Otoki says the crew is fully trained to handle any incidents that might arise along the journey, including sicknesses and insecurity.
“If a sickness is of a nature that cannot be handled in the train, we can call for emergency services through any of the stations along the route. The crew is also trained on evacuation procedures should such a need arise,” he says.
Though the train carrying the journalists to Mombasa did not have an on board meal service, it is expected to be a key feature in the five hour journey after the launch.
Still, it has not been an easy journey for the young breed of Kenyans who will be in charge of the train operations. According to Mukono, friends and relatives tried to dissuade her from training to be a train crew member.
And when she joined, others claimed she and her friends did not deserve the chance.
