Railway head office: From a symbol of oppression to African resilience

Sir Herbert Baker (1862-1946) was a renown British architect. Working in South Africa, India and Kenya, he became the leading architect of the Empire.

A dyed-in-the-wool imperialist and establishment figure, he travelled to South Africa in 1892 where he received the patronage of the master, Cecil Rhodes.

He remained there for 20 years where he designed many public and religious buildings as well as private houses. He then travelled to India where he also designed many government buildings.

He is also credited with designing State House, St Stephen’s Church on Jogoo Road, and the High Court building in Nairobi.

The Railway headquarters building is situated on Haile Selassie Avenue with a return frontage on Moi Avenue adjoining the Nairobi Railway Station. Designed by Sir Herbert Baker in 1927, this is a magnificent example of neo-classical architecture, popular at that time.

The complex consists of three blocks constructed around a central quadrangle. The eastern and southern blocks comprise a basement, a ground floor and two upper floors while the western block has three upper floors.

Walls are built in smooth rendered Njiru Blue Stone beneath a Mangalore tiled roof supported by timber trusses.

The main entrances are adorned with towering round- section columns rising to the roof level with stone archways at the ground level.

Doors are made of heavy panelled timber with brass handles hung in rectangular timber frames. Windows are glazed in timber casements contained in arched openings to the ground floor level while those on the upper floors are glazed in rectangular steel casements.

Floors are mostly finished in parquet with granite and terrazo to the entrances and stairways. The buildings are in a good state of decoration and repair as a result of regular maintenance.

Exploit resources

There is a large tarmacked parking area surrounding the complex. The forecourt features a lawn and flower garden in reasonable condition but it is obvious they have seen better times.

Kenya Railways occupies the southern block; the eastern block is leased to the concessionaires Rift Valley Railways, while the western block is leased to corporate tenants.

The site is gazetted as a national monument.

The railway was built principally to open up the interior of Kenya to enable settlers access valuable resources inland. It also facilitated rapid mass transit for movement of equipment, machinery, fuel and the human capital needed to exploit those resources.

On the return leg, the produce of those resources was easily transported to processing factories and eventually to Mombasa port for export.

After the government, the railway was the second biggest employer. At the time when the Railways headquarters was built, employment was highly segregated.

Managerial jobs were reserved exclusively for the white community while supervisory cadres were reserved for Indians and Africans could only qualify for clerical and manual jobs.

Locomotive drivers were sourced from India where a railway system had already been running for some time. With time Indians took over as station masters.

Segregation was not only practised at the workplace but also in the way that employees were accommodated in railway housing.

The white managers were accommodated on Railway Hill (today’s Upper Hill), Indians in Ngara and Parklands while Africans were housed in Muthurwa and Landhies Road. To be fair, nothing more was to be expected from a regime whose official policy was based on a system of “separate development”.

Wind of change

Nevertheless, the railway did benefit Africans in providing cheap transport (Africans could only travel third class) as they went in search of jobs in urban centres.

Students travelling on the train were entitled to a concessionary ticket. During the struggle for independence, the train provided a means of rapid movement for politicians and trade unionists between urban centres where they would address their people.

As the inevitable “wind of change” began to be felt in the mid 1950’s, the railways management began to train African station masters and drivers to take over from the Indians but it was not until 1964 that the first African chief executive, Dr E.N. Gakuo, was appointed.

For many Africans this building, in all its splendour, was a sign of oppression and segregation reflecting the dominance of the settler community. However, today with the benefit of hindsight, we can take pride that we fought and won our right to self determination.

We can look at this building and say “Yes, we have overcome against all odds”.

It is a permanent reminder of our indomitable spirit.