The meter gauge railway built by British colonialists in East Africa in 1896-1901, emblematic of Western civilization's expansive reach, piped white settlers to the African continent in pursuit of adventure and colonial conquest and witnessed Kenya's awakening process and struggle for independence.
NAIROBI, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- "It is not uncommon for a country to create a railway, but it is uncommon for a railway to create a country," Sir Charles Eliot, then commissioner of British East Africa, made the bold statement in 1903.
Eliot, "who initiated the policy of white supremacy in the British East Africa Protectorate (now Kenya)," according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica website, was referring to the meter gauge railway built by British colonialists in East Africa between 1896 and 1901.
The railway, emblematic of Western civilization's expansive reach, piped white settlers to the African continent in pursuit of adventure and colonial conquest and witnessed Kenya's awakening process and struggle for independence.
"There are those who praised it (the railway) as a key component in Kenya's birth, or we called the birth of a nation, and those who are more of saying that it played a role in colonizing Kenya," Dennis Munene, executive director of the China-Africa Center, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
"We're celebrating now our independence 60 years. And we will always continue to look behind on what happened. We are going to heal from the wounds and now push for Kenya to attain more development," Munene said.
Kenya broke the shackles of colonial rule sixty years ago, but the legacy of the colonial economy continued to constrain the country's development for decades.
Today, when looking out of the train windows of the old railway, tourists can enjoy Kenya's beautiful landscape and diverse wildlife while spotting tea plantations, some of which are still owned by Western multinationals.
Meanwhile, a notable change captured their attention: The new Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) built by China runs mainly in parallel with the old one.
The SGR, dubbed the Madaraka Express, was launched on May 31, 2017, a day before Madaraka Day, which commemorates Kenya's internal self-rule on June 1, 1963.
The new train drastically reduced travel time and the costs of freight service. It emerged as the preferred choice for commuters, pivotal in stimulating commerce and empowering smaller towns along its corridor.
In the railway museum, a locomotive miniature of the SGR is on display, bearing a slogan on the side of the carriages that reads "connecting nations, prospering people."
"The old Kenya-Uganda railway was more of an extractive railway where colonial masters used to get raw materials from the hinterland to the Indian Ocean for shipping to their countries," Munene said.
"The SGR, which is a partnership between China and Kenya, is development-oriented. It helps Kenya to integrate with the other East African countries. It's helping Kenya to grow in terms of its economic expansion. It's creating what we call a fast and efficient mode of transport for goods and passengers," he said.
The new railway has operated seamlessly for over 2,300 days, ferrying millions of passengers and tons of goods, contributing significantly to Kenya's socio-economic growth. Local drivers, technicians and attendants, trained by Chinese professionals, ensure the smooth operation of the railway.
The Madaraka Express epitomizes the Belt and Road cooperation between China and Kenya. Over the past years, such cooperation projects have helped enhance infrastructure connectivity across the continent and boost intra-African trade.
The colonial past represented by the old railway is gradually fading away. A bright future brought by the new railway is emerging.■
