Uganda Railway

The Uganda Railway was a railway constructed at the end of the 19th century, originally from Mombasa to Lake Victoria, later to Kampala. It had remarkable effects, mostly unintended, on the development of both Kenya and Uganda. The railway later fell into disuse along much of its length, but in 2013 agreements were reached for its reconstruction with a different gauge.

Original purposes
The intentions of the British governments which undertook the building of the line were to assist in the suppression of the slave trade and to maintain British interests in the face of French and German ambitions in the region. In 1890, the same year as Britain declared a protectorate over Uganda, the Brussels conference on the suppression of the slave trade committed the participating European powers to action to stop the Arab trade in slaves from Africa. It specifically mentioned the building of railways and the use of lake steamers. The Imperial British East Africa Company used the treaty as a reason to press the government for construction of a railway. Probably just as important was the fear of the Germans and French becoming considerable powers in the East of Africa. In the various debates in the House of Commons, trade with Uganda was also occasionally mentioned.