In the 19th century, Nairobi was simply a vast swampy plain on which the Maasai grazed their cattle and wildlife roamed freely. The winds of change began to blow in the 1890s with the arrival of the first Europeans. Here, they settled temporarily in camps before donning their adventurous cloaks and exploring further inland. Others noticed Nairobi’s already growing population, took a keen interest in the region’s commercial potential, and slowly started developing the landscape by establishing businesses and erecting homes. But it wasn’t until the last few months of 1896 that visitors who were intentional about making Nairobi a railway hub arrived.
Three Uganda Railway engineers made their way to this settlement on a survey mission to assess the viability of the routes that had been indicated in the railway sketch. The railway was set to pass through present-day Waiyaki Way, past Kikuyu and into Limuru as it snaked west towards Lake Victoria.
Another survey took place in 1897 when George Whitehouse – chief engineer of the Uganda Railway – set off from the railhead at Mombasa on an on-foot mission to find the best location for the railway headquarters. Nairobi’s flat terrain made it ideal for the construction of railway station facilities, yards and workshops. It was also about 257 miles from Lake Victoria, hence a halfway point from the railway’s intended destination. Furthermore, the plain was abounding with fresh water from all the rivers flowing in and about Nairobi, a stark contrast to Mombasa’s saline water. The cool Nairobi temperatures were also favourable for the setting up of a residential centre for both British settlers and the Indian labourers who were constructing the railway.
Rail Depot
In early 1898, George Whitehouse dispatched his assistant to map out the layout for a new railway depot. The assistant plotted out two streets –Victoria and Station Streets (present-day Tom Mboya Street and Moi Avenue) – for three-axled ox-cart transports, ten avenues to host residential areas for plate-laying railway staff, six sites for senior staff houses, thirteen plots for the European Bazaar – a European commercial centre, and a commercial site for Asians in the present-day Biashara Street.
Mandated by the British Foreign Policy to seize and control any land necessary for the development of railways, then, Whitehouse established a massive materials storage and supply depot as well as a resting camp for all the construction workers. Following the same order that also required the identification of a middle zone between the coast and Lake Victoria, Nairobi was formalised as an operation base and headquarters for the Uganda Railways in 1899.
When railway construction had triumphed over the tribulations of water scarcity, the daunting terrain and the man-eaters of Tsavo, the rails reached this flat swampy plain in mid-1899. Having come as far as 326 km from the commissioning point at Mombasa, a two-foot steam gauge trolley line powered by hand-propelled wagons arrived at the Nairobi Railway Station on May 30, 1899.
Becoming Nairobi; the Railway Town
The Uganda Railway took upon itself the task of transforming Nairobi into a railway town. They named the hill overlooking Nairobi ‘Railway Hill’ and later ‘The Hill’ (present-day Upper Hill), then built the first railway house there. Onwards, accommodation facilities and hotels sprung up around the railroad, the most notable one being the Norfolk Hotel. Norfolk acted as an unofficial station sometimes, as travellers were allowed, sometimes, to alight at the hotel as opposed to going all the way to the Nairobi Railway Station.
Moving the Railroad
In 1904, Ewart Grogan, an English explorer and politician, moved to Kenya with his wife Gertrude Grogan. This married couple would later alter the course of the railway line in Nairobi. They had settled at the foot of Kirungi Hill (in present-day Nairobi University’s Chiromo campus). Gertrude , distressed by the bellows of the train as it trudged up the hill, asked her husband to move the railways. The railway line then realigned to pass through Kibra and Dagoretti before resuming the original route at Kikuyu as it pushed out of Nairobi.
