Destination Nanyuki, Kenya

Thanks to the reintroduction of the Nairobi-Nanyuki passenger train services by Kenya Railway Corporation (KRC), I managed to use it to face Mount Kenya. The stress-free and scenic 194-kilometer daytime trip was not only refreshing, but it brought back sweet memories of the old night train services from the capital city to Mombasa and to Kisumu of the 1960s, ‘70s, and 80s on the meter gauge line designed and built over a century ago during the colonial era.

At 7.45 am. on that Friday, the train driver made the first series of hoots to alert passengers and crew that departure was in the next 15 minutes. Meanwhile, passengers had time to pay the Kshs200 or Kshs1, 000 per person for the economy coach, read public coach, and First Class, respectively.

In the Economy coach, passengers sit on a long bench on either side and face each other. There is room in the middle for standing passengers and also for KR staff inspectors and catering units to serve the passengers.

In the First Class coach, one has the luxury to enjoy one’s own space and also to turn the seat into a bed and enjoy a nap. During the colonial era, First and Second Class coaches were reserved for Europeans and for Asians, while Third Class was for Africans, in the overnight services from Nairobi to Kisumu and Mombasa.

In the re-introduced weekly train service on Fridays to Mwisho wa Reli (end of the rail), it takes 7.49 hours and passengers have an option of buying refreshments and snacks outside or inside the station before it takes off. The other option is to wait for the KR staff to sell the same at a higher price while on board.

It departs at 9 am. On Fridays and arrives in Nanyuki, on the slopes of Africa’s second-highest mountain, Mt Kenya, at 5.45 pm. after meandering through one of the most scenic and agricultural parts of the country. Passengers, who opt to spend the weekend in the Mt. Kenya region, have an option of booking the return trip on Sunday, which departs at 9 am. and arrives in Nairobi in the evening.

I opted for the Economy coach, like most fellow passengers, to fit in my low budget in my mission to enjoy the Kenyan countryside from Nairobi through the following five counties.

They were Kiambu, Muranga, Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Laikipia.

To ensure I enjoyed the ride fully, I had armed myself with an earphone to listen to music on my smartphone and many reading materials like newspapers, magazines, and a novel, in a bid to keep boredom at bay. But later on, I realized that the ride was so interesting, chatting with fellow passengers, sightseeing, and hearing others conversing in loud tones, that my reading materials were not of much use.

At one point between Muranga and Karatina, the ride was so smooth and soothing that I found myself stealing some winks in a nap. But that was short-lived when I was startled by one of the KR supervisors who tapped my shoulder and requested me to allow a team from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to interview me, and some fellow passengers, about our experiences and view of KR services.

For a moment, I thought I was having a nightmare: why should the CID officers want to interview me? Have I done something wrong? I wondered. As my conscience was clear, I gave him the nod and within the next few minutes, three stout men entered our coach with still and video camera and a microphone ready for the interview. They introduced themselves and prepared me for the 10-minute interview, referred to by journalists as Vox Pox.

They also reminded me that my former colleague, Stephen Muiruri, who had served as Crime Editor, was now their boss in the Media and Communication department.

The interview was later published in

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Trading Places

As a journalist who is used and is paid to ask questions, this time around, I was on the carpet answering their questions. I revealed to them why I had a soft spot for KR saying it was because “railways service was in a family our blood,” literally.

Both my paternal and maternal grandfathers had worked and lived in Makongeni staff quarters in Nairobi courtesy of East African Railways and Harbour Corporations (EARHC) in the 1930s, ‘40s, and 1950s.

They both retired in the mid-1950s and were given round trip open tickets as their pension to travel by rail to any of its destinations in Kenya and in neighboring Uganda and Tanzania as they wished.

My first experience traveling by rail was in the 1970s while in primary school. It was on Christmas Eve when our parents decided to give us a treat by sponsoring my four siblings and me, to visit our uncles in the seaside town of Mombasa by night train. We arrived at Nairobi Railway station at 5.30 pm before 7 pm. Departure time excited to embark on our maiden trip by rail and to the coast.

At the station, we found one of the biggest crowds I had ever seen of men, women, and children queuing, shoving, and pushing to enter the already crowded and full coaches.

It was like the Tower of Babel; total chaos, and free for all arrangement. Despite that, passengers outside were demanding and pushing those on the doorway to make room for them.

Before I knew it, our dad and some of the uncles who had escorted us, held us sky high and ordered us to enter the coaches through the open toilet windows! The next thing we knew, we were on board the crowded coaches with all the seats taken up and the walkway full of luggage, while some young children sat and slept on their bags.

One of my brothers pulled a quick one once the train departed by asking one of the adults to help him squeeze the luggage on the luggage rack and make room for him to turn it into his bed for the 12-hours trip. The rest of us had to stand or sit on other peoples’ luggage on the passageway.

My next encounter with KR was in the 1990s as a Bureau Chief of Nation Media Group in Kisumu, where I had good working relations with its Manager for Corporate Affairs, Njeri Luseno, who would issue me with a roundtrip train ticket for my wife and two children from Nairobi to Mombasa, during my annual leave.

But during one of those luxurious trips in First Class Coach with two beds we got a rude shock midway to Mombasa from Nairobi when the train driver made a wrong turn by mistake and drive for kilometers on end towards Voi and Mwatate in Taita Taveta County instead of going straight to Mombasa through Maisenyi and Mariakani.

By the time the driver realized the mistake, we had traveled for quite some time as most passengers were asleep and unaware. But I got curious after it stopped and it took several hours before we back on track on reverse heading back to Voi and then to Mombasa.

When I asked the KR staff what was the problem, he revealed that the Voi station master had directed the driver to the wrong rail! We resumed our journey at 6 am. and arrived in Mombasa at noon instead of 7 am with frustrated, annoyed, and angry passengers on board.

The Nanyuki train service was re-introduced in January 2020 and was an instant hit with passengers who had previously been left with no other option but to be at the mercy of operators of minibusses (matatus) and buses for the three-hour journey.

The idea of reviving the service was captured in the Vision 2030 Development Plan, which aimed at transforming Kenya into a newly industrialized middle-income country.

It was the brainchild of President Mwai Kibaki after he took over as the third holder of the powerful office in 2003. He hails from Othaya in Nyeri County, and the project was led by the then Transport Minister, John Michuki, and former Member of Parliament for Kangema, in Muranga County, who was his “Mr. Fix It.”

The train service is not only pocket-friendly fare-wise, at Shs200 per person instead of the Shs700 by matatus, but is also stress-free, no anxiety over speeding motorists, random police checks, and traffic accidents along the way.

During our journey in the diesel-driven train, travelers had an opportunity to see the other side of Nairobi city’s suburbia as the train headed to Mt Kenya and made brief stops to pick and drop passengers at Makadara, Dandora, and Mwiki in Nairobi County, Githurai, Kahawa, Ruiru, Thika in Kiambu County, Mitubiri, Makuyu, Maragua, Muranga in Muranga County, Sagana, Karatina, Kiganjo, Chaka in and then Naromoru all in Nyeri County before the last stop in Nanyuki in Laikipia County.

As we alighted at the station, I overheard several passengers expressing joy and satisfaction saying they look forward to taking another train ride. Others appealed to KR to extend the service to twice or even thrice a week.

For me, it was mission accomplished having landed on what a former colleague at the Nation, Wahome Mutahi aka Whispers, used to describe as: “The Slopes,” where I spent the night in a hotel appropriately called Mwisho wa Reli.

At sunrise the following day, I boarded the first matatu to Nairobi at triple the train fare.

But it was an anticlimax because I could “Face Mount Kenya, “ like the founder of the Nation Mzee Jomo Kenyatta wrote in his famous book by the same title, but because of bad weather, I did not see the snow-capped tourist attraction! I thanked God that I had seen it before during my previous travels to Isiolo and Meru.