Kenya - Destroyed railway section being repaired

[John Ashworth]

Destroyed railway section being repaired

Story by NATION Correspondent
Publication Date: 1/22/2008
Daily Nation

A section of the railway line that was destroyed in Nairobi’s Kibera slums last Thursday last week is now being repaired.

Experts from Rift Valley Railways Company began repair work yesterday morning under heavy security.

Hundreds of protesters last week uprooted about one kilometre of the rail with bare hands.

They were protesting against a ban on the countrywide mass action called by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

Demolish it again

But even as the repair work got under way yesterday, some youths vowed to destroy it again this Thursday when ODM plans to hold a public rally at Uhuru Park.

Yesterday, a few youths who were assisting the Rift Valley Railways workers to repair the line were threatened with dire consequences.

In last week’s incident, a cargo train was trapped on the rail and its goods looted before anti-riot police arrived and dispersed the protesters.

Hours later, they defiantly returned and flipped over a section of the track and vowed to fight whoever tried to repair it.

The line is part of the rail connecting the port of Mombasa to Kampala as well as several other parts of Kenya.