A Walk Around Kikuyu

You know how you ignore spectacular things right in front of you? How you do not even notice the birds singing in the morning? Well, I have done that to my home-town for the longest time.

So this Saturday, I woke up at 6, just to take a walk around the place as it was still stirring from its sleep. Note that even during weekdays, I don’t wake up that early. Anyway, come, let’s take a walk!

The goal is to walk up the Nairobi – Naivasha highway into Kikuyu via the new Southern Bypass to the railway station that I had never been to before. Can you believe that? Born and bred in Kikuyu and I’ve never been to the railway station, leave alone on a train. But that’s a story for another day.

First things first, the road is slowly getting prettier and prettier. You can even see that through the fog. I can’t wait for the lights to be fixed!

The road into Kikuyu near PCEA Kikuyu Township church is also taking shape. The footbridge – – one that turns into a full blown market during the day – – is getting fitted with a pretty blue transparent roof.

And then to the railway! The thing about the railway is that it always makes me feel so nostalgic even though I haven’t travelled on it. So you can imagine how good I felt when I finally got to the Kikuyu railway station for the first time in my life.

From a distance, you might think that nothing actually happens here. The buildings are right off a black and white photo from the British colonial times. We actually thought it was inhabited, until I noticed a man seated up in the little control room. He noticed us snooping around too and came out. B, ever the aggressive one, walked up to him to chat. And that turned out to be a great decision. He showed us around the place. From that little control room full of levers that don’t work any more save for one…

…To the main station offices,where he explained the rigmarole. Such a nice guy. Anyway, here’s peek into the place.

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The railway through Kikuyu goes all the way to Mombasa but apparently the trains to Kisumu don’t go no more because good ol’ Kenyans stole the metal holding a certain bridge along that railway. Now I am going to travel on train for fun one of these days, just to see what this is all about.

At the end of the walk in the cold, we stopped by Crave Kitchen. That’s a place you want to check out by the way. It’s awesome. So awesome that after it was hot and I was about to go back home, I still went back for this. Sweetest thing ever.

Till next time!