Kevin Macharia has operated his taxi business a few metres away from the Mwiki railway crossing in Nairobi for nearly 10 uneventful years.
But, the events of Wednesday evening will forever remain etched in his mind.
He was taking a nap inside his taxi when he heard commotion and loud hooting coming from the railway.
When he looked, he saw a train engine snaking its way slowly and steadily along the railway – but there was no driver in it.
“I thought I was dreaming. It was coming towards my direction and there was another locomotive chasing it and the drivers were hooting and warning people to stay away,” said Macharia.
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As people scattered from it, the engine kept its momentum and continued moving, increasing its speed when it hit a slippery slope.
“Can you imagine sitting here and you see a train driving itself? It was like those things we see in movies,” said a fruit vendor who sells along the railway.
The bizarre events started at around 2pm when a driver and his assistant lost control of the engine.
They had just dropped some luggage at the Ruiru station and were returning to Makadara. He was aligning the engine to attach wagons when the engine developed mechanical problems.
The assistant driver hopped out of the train to try and see if he could fix the problem to no avail.
“It seems like the engine’s brakes failed and they could not control it,” said an official from the Rift Valley Railways (RVR) that is charged with managing the railways.
When the driver realised that he could not control the engine, witnesses said he jumped out through the window and watched helplessly as the machine he had controlled for years slipped away and sped off unmanned.
At some point, he tried chasing it on foot while trying to make frantic calls, according to a woman who said she saw everything.
The drivers managed to get into another train and trailed the unmanned one while hooting to warn pedestrians and motorists, Railway commandant Kirimi Ringera said.
However, officials at RVR, who operate and service the trains at Makadara, disputed the claims terming them absurd.
They said the driver maintained his cool at a time of the “unfortunate crisis” and controlled the engine until it made a sudden halt at Githurai.
The Internal Security Manager at Makadara Railway station said he was doing rounds around the yard when he got several phone calls from people informing him that one of their trains had been seen “driving itself” towards Githurai.
Railway security officials who manage the tracks told him they had abandoned their duties because an engine was on the loose and could injure them. “I had to call all my staff members and tell them to go to a safe place,” said the security official on condition of anonymity.
Ringera said the engine stalled near Githurai in Mwiki at a slope after losing momentum almost 10km away. It passed through the busy Umoja, Kayole, Dandora among other stops.
“It was a relief because it stalled without causing damage to property or injuring people,” he said adding that police were informed to keep off the route and control passengers who wanted to board trains.
The engine is reportedly one of several old machines that have been serving the country since independence.
Additional reporting by Cyrus Ombati
