Kenya - Dagoretti Station

[John Ashworth]

Dagoretti Station is on the outskirts of Nairobi

Photos by John Ashworth 1996

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Dagoretti Corner! I do not know why the thew Corner bit! All still the same - except a bit disused.

[John Ashworth]

Dagoretti and Dagoretti Corner are two different places a couple of kms apart. Dagoretti is a village or suburb - noted for its slaughterhouses which stink when you drive through it. Dagoretti Corner is the place where the Dagoretti road branches off Ngong Road. If you follow the road from Dagoretti Corner through Dagoretti it joins the main Mombasa-Kampala road. Dagoretti Corner has become really up-market now with a Nakumatt, Java Coffee House, etc.

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Interesting - it used to be a dump and NOT upmarket. All the buses used to stop there on their way up-country........ at Dagoretti Corner (I think it was).

I should back one day and be appropriately amazed, bemused and confused!

[John Ashworth]

Well, Dagoretti certainly is a dump, slaughterhouses and all, and Dagoretti Corner used to be a dump. But as I say, the latter is fairly up-market now. Mind you, as you continue along the road towards Ngong it's still a bit down-market. The sewage tankers which were quickly converted into fresh drinking water tankers a few years back due to water shortages are all parked along the roadside waiting to be hired, and all along the right hand side of the road there are jua kali (informal industry) workshops and stalls selling wooden and welded metal furniture. The race course and at least one new up-market business park are on the other side of the road.

You should go back - I go several times a year and every time there's something new. The traffic lights in Nairobi have just been repaired, much to everyone's amazement, and there are rumours that this time the roads are really going to be repaired properly. They're working on the Mombasa Road from the airport to the city, and there is serious talk again about a by-pass for the heavy trucks to avoid Nairobi altogether (upgrading the railway would be better!). I haven't seen it myself but Jane assures me there is a new stretch of road somewhere around Kilimani, and the road to my sister-in-law's house in South B (or is it South C? I always get them confused) has been resurfaced.

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Have not been back since the mid '70's!

I actually thought it would have all changed dramatically......