Kenya’s new ‘Lunatic Express’ reveals lot about the country’s struggles, triumphs
Passengers disembark from the Standard Gauge Railway inter-county passenger train in Mombasa. Since Kenya’s new railway began operations in 2017, its four daily trains have transported several million people. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NMG
Every day, at exactly two minutes past midday, the Madaraka Express Passenger Service inter-county train from Nairobi stops at the Voi station. It departs six minutes later on its way to the coastal city of Mombasa. The six-minute halt at Voi is the longest of the seven stops between Nairobi and Mombasa — it stops for just two minutes at the next station, Miasenyi, 33 minutes later.
When I got off the train at Voi in mid-July this year, having chosen the stop for no reason beyond curiosity, I was just one of the many passengers disembarking. Ours was a motley group of travellers: a man hauling a heavy carton reinforced with adhesive tape, a woman herding two tired children out of the station, a handful of students heading back to school after a break, and several lone travellers like me.
