Uganda Railway - Origins

Origins

The official approach, British and local, to both slavery and free porter labour included a genuine belief that the man doing the work had real interests which deserved concern and protection. No such concern was evident among parliamentarians, missionaries or administrators for those at work on the construction of the Uganda Railway. It was decided to build the railway as quickly as possible; its construction was viewed almost as a military attack—casualties were inevitable and might be large if the objective was to be attained and momentum not lost.

Built during the Scramble for Africa, the Uganda Railway was "a truly imperial project, built by the British government with little purpose other than to cement its colonial power". 2,498 workers would die during its construction.

The Uganda Railway was named after its ultimate destination, for its entire original 660-mile length actually lay in what would become Kenya. Construction began at the port city of Mombasa in British East Africa in 1896, and finished at the line's terminus, Kisumu, on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria, in 1901. 200,000 individual 30 feet rail-lengths and 1.2 million sleepers, 200,000 fish-plates, 400,000 fish-bolts and 4.8 million steel keys including steel girders for viaducts and causeways had to be imported, necessitating the creation of a modern port at Kilindini in Mombasa. With their new steam-powered access to Uganda, the British could ferry people and soldiers about to ensure their domination of the region.

Prior to the railway's construction, the British East Africa Company had begun the Mackinnon-Sclater road, a 600 miles (970 km) ox-cart track from Mombasa to Busia in Kenya, in 1890. The railway followed a similar route and soon superseded it.

The railway is 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄₈ in) gauge and virtually all single-track. The project cost about £5 million to complete and the first services started in 1903.

Construction was carried out principally by labourers from British India, 32,000 of whom were brought in because of a lack of indigenous labour to exploit. While most of the surviving Indians returned home, 6,724 decided to remain after the line's completion, creating a community of Indian East Africans. (In the 1970s, their descendants were expelled by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin).

The railway was a huge logistical achievement and became strategically and economically vital for both Uganda and Kenya. It helped to suppress slavery, by removing the need for humans in the transport of goods, and in the First World War campaign against General Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa, modern Tanzania. The railway allowed heavy equipment to be transported far inland with relative ease. Up until that time the main form of transport in the interior was ox-drawn wagon. The railway also allowed coffee and tea to be exported and encouraged colonial settlement and other types of commerce. In order to help pay for the project, the UK government encouraged white settlers to farm large tracts of Kenyan highlands which the railway had made accessible. This policy would shape the development of Kenya for decades.

A railway siding connecting to the residence of the High Commissioner to Uganda was used by Governor Frederick John Jackson and his 1910 BSA railcar that was used for his hunting parties. The railcar was recently restored in South Africa. The Governor lent his railcar to President Theodore Roosevelt on his visit to Uganda.