‘Lunatic Line’ that helped create a country

By Kiundu Waweru

President Kibaki’s promise on Tuesday that the railway infrastructure is to be upgraded to modern standards echoed the excitement expressed by a colonial administrator in 1903 when the railway reached Kisumu.

British colonial administrator, Sir Charles Elliot, is recorded to have said in excitement: "It is not uncommon for a country to create a railway, but it is uncommon for a railway to create a country."

The Nairobi Railway Museum harbours history dating back to pre-construction days in 1889. [PHOTO: KIUNDU WAWERU/STANDARD]

One of the settlers who would make a major impact, Lord Delamere, was a pioneer in the agriculture field, which saw the development of the white highlands and arrival of more settlers. "As agriculture took root, small stations were developed in for ease of transportation of agricultural produce among them, Nakuru, Naivasha, Tigoni, Kijabe Mission and Sigona all which the settlers took for themselves," the records indicate.

Opening up

And according to a museum booklet, National Heritage, written by Bryan Harris and Judith Sidi Odhiambo, the ‘Lunatic Express’ later proved to be a highway for opening up the interior. The railway line heralded urbanisation where many of the Indian coolies who had constructed the line started small the first dukawalla businesses in growing towns.

Nairobi slowly evolved into a business hub with the railway line initially running across town from the Kenya Railway Station to George Whitehouse Road (now Haile Sellasie Avenue) through Parliament Road to Lord Delamere Avenue (Kenyatta Avenue).

At the Norfolk hotel, where the railway then passed, settlers would laze on the hotel’s then racially segregated verandah and sip tea as they waited for the train. The line was only relocated to pass through Kibera in 1948 due to the steep incline through Westlands heading to the extinct Kabete Station.

As I sat later at the Railway Station cafÈ, sipping tea like the settlers did a century ago, I could not help appreciating the role the ‘Lunatic Express’ played in development, probably seeking to invoke sanity to the lunatic legacy.