Rail is the second most important mode of transport in Kenya after road, for both freight and passenger services.

It is suitable for transporting bulky and heavy commodities over long distances. The railway system in Kenya comprises 2,156km of metre gauge track. Part of this is a 146km branch line between Magadi and Konza owned by the Magadi Soda Company, which operates trains between Konza and Mombasa through a rights agreement with the Kenya Railways Corporations (KRC).

The railway line in Kenya runs across the southern part of the country from the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa to Malaba along the border with Uganda. There are also branch lines connecting Nakuru-Kisumu and Nairobi-Nanyuki. Other branch lines are Kisumu-Butere, Kitale and Nyahururu.

The rail network was handed over to a concessionaire — the Rift Valley Railways (RVR) — in November 2006. Other partners have since joined, including Kenya’s Transcentruy Group and Citadel, an Egyptian company. Prior to the concession, KRC’s core function was to provide freight and passenger transport services. The corporation now provides rail transport services through concessionaire and manages other assets, including land, building workshops, track, signaling and tele-communication facilities, locomotives, passenger coaches and freight wagons, a wagon ferry on Lake Victoria and the Railway Museum,

But Kenya and Uganda have had challenges over the concessioning. The two countries have agreed to upgrade the railway system to standard Gauge. This will increase the capacity of the line from 14 to 30 trains a day, reduce transport costs, shorten transit time from Mombasa to Malaba from two days to 12 hours and increase annual cargo tonnage from five million to 29 million.