The coming of the white man and the construction of the railway, ‘the iron snake’, had been foretold by African religious prophets and seers years before it was built.  These prophets and seers included Syokimau, Mugo wa Kibiru, Kimnyole arap Turukat, Masaku and Mwenda Mwea. The prophets and seers also forewarned of the many problems and sufferings that this would cause such as interference with their culture, and taking away of their land and cattle.  

Ludwig Krapf was the first person to suggest a railway be built in East Africa through a letter dated 1845. The Brussels Conference of 1889, to which Britain was a party, determined that the most effective way of fighting slave trade in Africa was among other measures, through the construction of railways which would secure the source of the River Nile. Other reasons for building the railway included stimulating legitimate trade, providing cheap and safe transport, spreading Christianity, and for administration of the protectorate.

The party to carry out the preliminary survey for the Uganda Railway from Mombasa to Lake Victoria arrived in Mombasa on 18^th December, 1891. Engineer George Whitehouse who led the construction of the Uganda Railway arrived in Mombasa on 11^th December, 1895. A total of 31,983 indentured labourers mainly from Punjab and Gujarat worked on the railway line which reached Port Florence, present day Kisumu, on 19^th December, 1901.

The construction of the railway faced stiff opposition in Britain because it was seen as not economically viable. Hostility from local communities would also delay the completion of the work.