Tourists Stranded in Taru after the train got a hitch, Kenya

It was unfortunate that many passengers including tourists got stark after the train they were to travel in got a hitch at Mackinnon road in Taru. The Rift valley passengers train did not reach Mombasa after another cargo train derailed near Mackinnon blocking the main Mombasa-Nairobi railway line.

It is disappointing that, railway transport in East Africa is still unreliable as it is not even used in most areas while in some areas where it used to operate; it is no longer operating due to mismanagement and financial crisis.

According to Liz Gathoni, a travel agent based in Mombasa said, her clients were forced to cancel their trips following the hiccup. She complained of poor services offered by the RVR because of the monopoly it enjoys in offering train services. One of the Norway tourists known as Marius standby expressed his disappointment at how the RVR management handled the whole problem. He said the management was not open with the passengers on what was happening.

The transport system in some of the African countries is not reliable hence making the tourism sector of the affected countries rag behind. A bus with passengers had earlier been stopped by police at Makupa because the driver did not have the temporary license allowing him to travel at night. At around 11 pm all passengers were refunded their money to look for other means of transport. Since the government introduced the night travel ban on Passengers Service Van, many people who were in Mombasa for holiday have opted to travel by train. However, many have complained the trains are slow because some of the engines are very old. Trains are charging lower fare after bus companies raised theirs to about Sh2,000. Trains charge around 4,405 for first class, 3,385 (second class), and Sh680 for third class.

Kenya has many tourist destinations that are highly liked by many tourists but likely to be hindered by poor transport, insecurity- the attack of Westgate, and so on.