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The Lunatic Express: Was it doomed from the beginning?

When a British engineer, George Whitehouse, disembarked in Mombasa from SS Ethiopia in December 1895, his singular mission was to construct a railway that would link the Port of Mombasa and the headwaters of River Nile.

The iron steels running across the breadth of the country would later stoke so much emotion, rebellion and political and economic controversies that 123 years later, the effects are still being felt.

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