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Kenya Railway: State of desrepare and painful nostalgia
Rank: Elder Joined: 3/2/2009 Posts: 26,330 Location: Masada
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Drove along the old track line last weekend from Fort-Tenan (Fatana in local dialect) all the way to, Kipkelion (Lumbwa),Londiani, Mau Summit, Molo, Turi, Elburgon,Njoro and finally Nakuru and could not hold back my tears! I grew along the railway track and traveled on it a-thousand times! Looking at the state the monumental viaducts (those loooong silver bridges) choking in rust was too sad for me. I went to Molo railway station and I literally collapsed due to overwhelming emotions, I was a toddler there few decades ago! The stairs we used to slid on and play kati with one @Jane Njeri was choking with moss!!! The local were tethering goats on once lovely platform lamp posts... The once massive EABL Malting Depot owned by Njenga Karume is a pale shadow of itself, it actually resembles a maasai cow shed! The rail tracks serving the deport are buried in thick silt and mud! ION:Any wazuan who was bornm on the track like me in the house? Please share and let us do something to revive this golden relic! Portfolio: Sold You know you've made it when you get a parking space for your yatcht.
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 12/4/2009 Posts: 1,982 Location: matano manne
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@impunity I feel you, was born and raised along the railway. The neglect and disrepair along the stations is in your words heart wrenching mabati from the small worker's houses have disappeared not to mention the windows. .... wacha to.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 3/2/2009 Posts: 26,330 Location: Masada
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Rahatupu wrote:@impunity I feel you, was born and raised along the railway. The neglect and disrepair along the stations is in your words heart wrenching mabati from the small worker's houses have disappeared not to mention the windows. .... wacha to. Its so sad, only those who were born away from tracks cannot feel the pain. Kwanza the platform at Nakuru railway station is so potholed mpaka you wonder if Kenya has been at war recently! The Nakuru railway restaurant, the once best Railway in East and Central Africa is a den of wild bats!!! The G4S guy guarding the premises was sleeping when I visited. What used to be Upper Class waiting lounges have no windows and the American-made sofa-bed are hood to rats! I feel like moving to that statehouse and kick Ohunye out so that I can bring back some glory to this railways of Kenia. Portfolio: Sold You know you've made it when you get a parking space for your yatcht.
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 12/4/2009 Posts: 1,982 Location: matano manne
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Impunity wrote:Rahatupu wrote:@impunity I feel you, was born and raised along the railway. The neglect and disrepair along the stations is in your words heart wrenching mabati from the small worker's houses have disappeared not to mention the windows. .... wacha to. Its so sad, only those who were born away from tracks cannot feel the pain. Kwanza the platform at Nakuru railway station is so potholed mpaka you wonder if Kenya has been at war recently! The Nakuru railway restaurant, the once best Railway in East and Central Africa is a den of wild bats!!! The G4S guy guarding the premises was sleeping when I visited. What used to be Upper Class waiting lounges have no windows and the American-made sofa-bed are hood to rats! I feel like moving to that statehouse and kick Ohunye out so that I can bring back some glory to this railways of Kenia. go to the small stations Chang am we, maji ya chumvi, konza, Dagoretti, molo. ... even Mombasa a once bustling station is no more. Solution may come with the sgr.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 3/2/2009 Posts: 26,330 Location: Masada
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Rank: Elder Joined: 4/22/2010 Posts: 11,522 Location: Nairobi
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@Impunity did you read this story? https://www.1843magazine...ures/the-lunatic-expresspossunt quia posse videntur
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Rank: Elder Joined: 7/23/2008 Posts: 3,017
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KR has in the mean time put up a huge mordern building in Westlands which they plan to rent out!!!! WHAAA....T Everytime I read about the upcoming SGR and its plans form one...wait.. Atanas Mwangi (the current KR MD), I shudder, how long will it take us to run it to the ground. I pray the SGR is completely delinked from KR, gava should please create a separate body to run it. "The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline." James Collins
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Rank: User Joined: 8/15/2013 Posts: 13,237 Location: Vacuum
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Obi 1 Kanobi wrote:KR has in the mean time put up a huge mordern building in Westlands which they plan to rent out!!!! WHAAA....T
Everytime I read about the upcoming SGR and its plans form one...wait.. Atanas Mwangi (the current KR MD), I shudder, how long will it take us to run it to the ground.
I pray the SGR is completely delinked from KR, gava should please create a separate body to run it. Changing the forest but retaining the same monkeys! If Obiero did it, Who Am I?
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Rank: Elder Joined: 3/2/2009 Posts: 26,330 Location: Masada
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Swenani wrote:Obi 1 Kanobi wrote:KR has in the mean time put up a huge mordern building in Westlands which they plan to rent out!!!! WHAAA....T
Everytime I read about the upcoming SGR and its plans form one...wait.. Atanas Mwangi (the current KR MD), I shudder, how long will it take us to run it to the ground.
I pray the SGR is completely delinked from KR, gava should please create a separate body to run it. Changing the forest but retaining the same monkeys! I would rather the SGR die but the MGR remains...this is our history...we cant lose it. Portfolio: Sold You know you've made it when you get a parking space for your yatcht.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 3/2/2009 Posts: 26,330 Location: Masada
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I read it well but with a lot of tears and pains. It brought great past sweet memory which the dimwits at the head of Kenya Railways and the gaament in general cannot understand. @Uhunye never boarded the passenger lunatic trains as he was a blueband kidwhile the @KaleSingha only managed to sell chicken by rail side in Turbo...he was too poor to afford a ride! Thats the sadness!!!!!!!!!! Portfolio: Sold You know you've made it when you get a parking space for your yatcht.
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 11/11/2006 Posts: 972 Location: Home
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The Nakuru -Kisumu -Butere line no longer operational. I took train rides for the fun, glad i did it before the service was stopped. We got so many MGR going to waste. Nakuru-Kisumu -Butere Nairobi-Nanyuki, Eldoret - Kitale Gilgil -Nyahururu, Voi -Taveta, and others i might not be aware of. If you were raised in a railway town, you'd understand what Impunity is going through.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 3/2/2009 Posts: 26,330 Location: Masada
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holycow wrote:The Nakuru -Kisumu -Butere line no longer operational. I took train rides for the fun, glad i did it before the service was stopped. We got so many MGR going to waste. Nakuru-Kisumu -Butere Nairobi-Nanyuki, Eldoret - Kitale Gilgil -Nyahururu, Voi -Taveta, and others i might not be aware of. If you were raised in a railway town, you'd understand what Impunity is going through.
Sad... I tell you. We used to leave in a remote rail road station in Baringo on the Nakuru to Eldoret main line and the only means of transport and communication was the railway. We would hike the freight trains to Rongai to attend hospitals or buy uniforms... The loose nuts employed by Jubilee at the head office no nothing about this. Portfolio: Sold You know you've made it when you get a parking space for your yatcht.
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 12/4/2009 Posts: 1,982 Location: matano manne
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Why is no one mentioning the theft of KR assets, esp land and buildings? From Changamwe, Dagoretti,Konza,Nakuru all the way to Kisumu and Malaba it's looting galore!
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Rank: Elder Joined: 12/27/2012 Posts: 2,256 Location: Bandalungwa
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Going from Nairobi to Mombasa by train used to be one of the most exciting events when I was a in lower primo. I had even memorized all the stations. Seeing the reflection of Indian ocean when you reach Mazeras at 5 am would literally make us excited out of our minds.
An even better memory was during my teen years playing football on the hallowed football fields in Kenya Railways estates like Makongeni, Kaloleni, Muthurwa etc.
The competition was white hot. The crowds were huge and exhuberant. These estates produced a disproportionate number of future Harambee stars players. I remember going to watch Black Mamba and hakati sportiff players training. They were playground legends I tell ya ! Many of these young boys eventually played for the national team.
And each weekend there were walk movies where the time spent on advertisements was as much as the time spent on the movie itself.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 6/21/2008 Posts: 2,490
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Rahatupu wrote:Why is no one mentioning the theft of KR assets, esp land and buildings? From Changamwe, Dagoretti,Konza,Nakuru all the way to Kisumu and Malaba it's looting galore! and Upper hill The man who marries a beautiful woman, and the farmer who grows corn by the roadside have the same problem
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Rank: User Joined: 8/15/2013 Posts: 13,237 Location: Vacuum
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Alba wrote:Going from Nairobi to Mombasa by train used to be one of the most exciting events when I was a in lower primo. I had even memorized all the stations. Seeing the reflection of Indian ocean when you reach Mazeras at 5 am would literally make us excited out of our minds.
An even better memory was during my teen years playing football on the hallowed football fields in Kenya Railways estates like Makongeni, Kaloleni, Muthurwa etc.
The competition was white hot. The crowds were huge and exhuberant. These estates produced a disproportionate number of future Harambee stars players. I remember going to watch Black Mamba and hakati sportiff players training. They were playground legends I tell ya ! Many of these young boys eventually played for the national team.
And each weekend there were walk movies where the time spent on advertisements was as much as the time spent on the movie itself. I recently used the train to mombasa, forking out Kshs 4,400 per person including dinner, the journey was long we left 5pm and reached msa the following day at noon, dinner was served with no drinks(you had to buy your own water), breakfast was served at 11 am), rooms are just dirty, service is pathetic(I ordered for coffee and I'm still waiting to be served).....Never will I use the that train again If Obiero did it, Who Am I?
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 4/4/2007 Posts: 1,162
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Swenani wrote:Alba wrote:Going from Nairobi to Mombasa by train used to be one of the most exciting events when I was a in lower primo. I had even memorized all the stations. Seeing the reflection of Indian ocean when you reach Mazeras at 5 am would literally make us excited out of our minds.
An even better memory was during my teen years playing football on the hallowed football fields in Kenya Railways estates like Makongeni, Kaloleni, Muthurwa etc.
The competition was white hot. The crowds were huge and exhuberant. These estates produced a disproportionate number of future Harambee stars players. I remember going to watch Black Mamba and hakati sportiff players training. They were playground legends I tell ya ! Many of these young boys eventually played for the national team.
And each weekend there were walk movies where the time spent on advertisements was as much as the time spent on the movie itself. I recently used the train to mombasa, forking out Kshs 4,400 per person including dinner, the journey was long we left 5pm and reached msa the following day at noon, dinner was served with no drinks(you had to buy your own water), breakfast was served at 11 am), rooms are just dirty, service is pathetic(I ordered for coffee and I'm still waiting to be served).....Never will I use the that train again Is SGR going to give better passenger service. And what will happen to the small gauge railway line in future? Will it be decommissioned?
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 1/20/2011 Posts: 1,820 Location: Nakuru
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holycow wrote:The Nakuru -Kisumu -Butere line no longer operational. I took train rides for the fun, glad i did it before the service was stopped. We got so many MGR going to waste. Nakuru-Kisumu -Butere Nairobi-Nanyuki, Eldoret - Kitale Gilgil -Nyahururu, Voi -Taveta, and others i might not be aware of. If you were raised in a railway town, you'd understand what Impunity is going through.
The rail-line in this section is no more as the chumas were sold as scrap metal. The contractor doing the Taveta road also completely destroyed the interchange. Most assets especially land in Mombasa i/.e., Changamwe, Jomvu, port reitz has been grabbed and ugly slums have sprung-up. Did you know that what we call Mukuru kwa njenga in South B stands on Railways land and government has deliberately refused to reclaim it back? Dumb money becomes dumb only when it listens to smart money
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Rank: Elder Joined: 10/1/2009 Posts: 2,436
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The rail-line in this section is no more as the chumas were sold as scrap metal. The contractor doing the Taveta road also completely destroyed the interchange. Most assets especially land in Mombasa i/.e., Changamwe, Jomvu, port reitz has been grabbed and ugly slums have sprung-up. Did you know that what we call Mukuru kwa njenga in South B stands on Railways land and government has deliberately refused to reclaim it back?[/quote] I could have sworn its one of the chandarias, with a court case currently going on
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 5/5/2011 Posts: 1,059
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holycow wrote:The Nakuru -Kisumu -Butere line no longer operational. I took train rides for the fun, glad i did it before the service was stopped. We got so many MGR going to waste. Nakuru-Kisumu -Butere Nairobi-Nanyuki, Eldoret - Kitale Gilgil -Nyahururu, Voi -Taveta, and others i might not be aware of. If you were raised in a railway town, you'd understand what Impunity is going through.
When kibaki came back, the railway came back for a while before collapsing back to the old state, it went to Nyahururu laden with cement, livestock feed, fertilizer etc then went back loaded with KCC milk, maize, wheat, beans and barley from laikipia and loaded potatoes at Ol-kalou , the marikiti guys in Nairobi were very happy since the produce literary alived just behind them at Marikiti, Grain would reach millers right oustside their millers, but then lorry transporters, produce brokers happened sabotage happened, theft from the Nyahururu station, threats from canter brokers at Marikiti and faceless guys in government. To Each His Own
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