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ABSTRACT
During the colonial period of East Africa, railways represented the pre-eminence of colonial influence, commerce and unity within the region. The railways were not just the physical link that connected territories, but also created their own social and economic structures to support them that defined regional authority. Post-colonial East African leaders attempted to capitalize on this existing structure to build on regional bonds. However, the unity that was enforced during the colonial period had become untenable, as national interests within each member state prevented the strengthening of regional ties. This was reflected within one institution: East African Railways. The joys of independence and regional unity soon ran up against the economic and political difficulties between member states of the East African Community (EAC). The latent inequalities between member states could not be overcome and regional interests gave way to nationalistic ones. Within a decade after its founding, the East African Railways had collapsed along with the broader EAC. Decades later, a new EAC has arisen, and with it plans to expand the existing East African Railway network. Will the railways now become a symbol for regional unity or once again become a chess piece in promoting member state's national interests?
Acknowledgements
The author is indebted to the Historical Studies department at the University of Cape Town for their facilities and support and to my academic supervisor, Dr. Michelle Sikes. In addition, grateful thanks are conveyed to the British Institute in East Africa for lodging and other logistics support while conducting research in Nairobi.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 “Kenya Launches Mega $13.8bn Railway Project,” Al Jazeera, November 28, 2013.
2 “Kenya to Terminate Railway at Kisumu after Rwanda Exit,” Business Daily, May 17, 2016.
3 CPCS Transcom International Ltd., East African Railways Master Plan, ii–iii.
4 di Delupis, The East African Community, 100–104; Fredland, “Who Killed,” 69–70; Hazelwood, The Economy of Kenya, 93–6; Springer, “Community Chronology,” 25–7; Mazzeo, “Problems of Regional Cooperation,” 87–9; and Ogonda, “Post-Independence Trends,” 313–26.
5 The library at the National Railway Museum in Nairobi and also at the Kenya National Archives.
6 Gunston, “The Planning and Construction,” 48.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid., 49.
9 Berry, “Hegemony on a Shoestring,” 329.
10 The final relative value cost of construction would be equivalent to £533,500,000 in 2014.
11 Gunston, “The Planning and Construction,” 65.
12 Hill, Permanent Way, Volume II, 61.
13 Due, “Some Observations,” 2.
14 Ibid.
15 Ogonda, “Post-Independence Trends,” 130.
16 Hill, Permanent Way, Volume II, 227–8.
17 O’Connor, Railways and Development, 125.
18 For instance, during a meeting of the Railway Advisory Council in 1930, Lord Delamere of Kenya sarcastically replied to the Uganda representative on his request to have a lower import rate assigned to Perrier water: ‘We all agree that Perrier water is a poor man’s drink. It is bottled 6,000 miles away, carried 6,000 miles by sea, another 1,000 miles on the railway … undoubtedly it is a poor man’s drink’. Hill, Permanent Way, Volume I, 491.
19 Hill, Permanent Way, Volume I, 489.
20 di Delupis, The East African Community, 42.
21 In a table, R. D. Grillo indicated that at one time, the EAR employed 63,518 employees in 1955 at a peak but normally averaged over 40,000. Grillo, African Railwaymen, 20.
22 Ibid., 26.
23 Ibid., 48.
24 Delupis, The East African Community, 83
25 East African Community, Treaty for East African, 244.
26 Ibid., 245.
27 Cooper, Africa Since 1940, 156–90.
28 Dresang and Sharkansky, “Public Corporations in Single-Country,” 315.
29 East African Community, The East African Railways, 11.
30 This included the DG as an ‘ex-officio’ member of the Board. See Okello-Ojok, “By Rail into the Future,” 2; and “How the Railways Run – Behind the Scenes,” Daily Nation, October 17, 1969, 7.
31 East African Community, The East African Railways, 10; and “How the Railways Run – Behind the Scenes”, Daily Nation (Nairobi), 17 October 1969, 7.
32 East African Community, The East African Railways, 13.
33 EARC, Memorandum on Decentralisation, 1.
34 It should be noted that prior to the appointment of Mr. Nabudere, there was a six month gap in the Chairman position following the departure of Mr. Okello-Ojok. During this time, no board meeting could be held. “New Clash in Row Over Rail Chief’s Appointment,” Daily Nation (Nairobi), July 2, 1971, 13.
35 The background and the build up to the Kagera War is described in Roberts, “The Uganda–Tanzania War,” 692–709.
36 Ibid.
37 EARC, Minutes of the Seventeenth.
38 Ibid.
39 “Railway Losses,” Daily Nation (Nairobi), May 22, 1970, 6; “Railway Economy Committee Invites Views of Public,” Daily Nation (Nairobi), September 12, 1970, 7.
40 EARC, Comments Made, 2.
41 Due, “Some Observations”, 5.
42 The rail lines in Kenya averaged about 2,000 tons/year per route/km while those in Tanzania averaged only 500 tons/year per route/km. World Bank, “Project Performance Audit Report,” 11.
43 EARC, “Reply by the Hon. Minister,” 3.
44 Delupis, The East African Community, 102.
45 KNA, “Railway Service Will Suffer,” Daily Nation (Nairobi), 18 December 1973, 5.
46 Due, “Some Observations,” 17.
47 EAC, Treaty for East African, 59.
48 Mazzeo, “Foreign Assistance,” 22.
49 Ibid., 55.
50 EARC, Memorandum on Decentralisation, 2.
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid., 3.
53 “Something to Think About,” Daily Nation (Nairobi), July 27, 1974, 6.
54 Mazzeo, “Problems of Regional Cooperation,” 88.
55 EARC, Minutes of the Thirty-second, 5.
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid., 7.
58 “Tanzania Takes Over All Internal Railway Matters,” Daily Nation (Nairobi), January 11, 1974, 3; and “‘New Action on Railways’ Hint,” Daily Nation (Nairobi), January 13, 1974, 1.
59 “Railways Crisis Drags on,” Daily Nation (Nairobi), 24 January 1974, 20.
60 “Kenya Cash Comes to the Rescue of the Troubled Railways,” Daily Nation (Nairobi), January 30, 1974, 24.
61 Ibid.
62 East African Community Secretariat, The Review of the Treaty, 1.
63 “Kenya Restricts Uganda’s Key Rail Link to the Sea,” The New York Times (New York), July 10, 1976.
64 EARC, Emergency Meeting, 1.
65 “Tanzania’s Leader Explains Break-up of African Union,” The New York Times (New York), February 9, 1977.
66 East African Community, Treaty for East African (1967), 230; and East African Community, Treaty for the Establishment (1999), 14.
67 Ibid., 76–7.
68 Ibid., 65.
69 Himbara, “Domestic Capitalists,” 75.
70 The findings from the Parliamentary Public Investments Committee. Ibid.
71 Cooksey, “Railway Rivalry in the East African Community,” 3.
72 CPCS Transcom International Ltd, East African Railways Master Plan, 1.
73 Ibid., v–vi.
74 Cooksey, “Railway rivalry in the East African Community,” 2.
75 “Puffed Out: Africa’s New Railways Risk Going the Way of the Old Ones,” The Economist, June 4, 2016.
76 Ibid.
77 Cooksey, “Tanzania and the East African Community,” 2–3.
78 Ibid., 23.