Hundreds stranded after SGR issues breakdown notice on 10 pm train
By Arnold Ngure, July 6, 2025Hundreds of travellers were left stranded after the Kenya Railway issued a statement noting that the Standard-Gauge Railway (SGR) train from Mombasa to Nairobi at 10:00 pm had experienced a technical breakdown.
While the SGR issued a statement concerning ‘technical issues’, they failed to give further information on the plans in place to ensure the passengers reach their destination or are refunded.
Passengers were seen sitting beside their luggage outside the Mombasa SGR terminus on Sunday night, with a significant number of them being young Kenyans who had attended the Summer Tides Festival in Diani, Kwale County.
Locked outside the terminus
In their communication, SGR failed to clarify whether the 10:00 pm from Nairobi could be used to ferry the stranded passengers who had been locked out of the terminus.
A section of activists has denounced the temporary suspension of the SGR as a targeted move by the state to prevent a surge of young Kenyans from the coastal town ahead of a planned Saba Saba Day protest on Monday, July 7, 2025.
This travel disruption coincides with an incident described by human rights activist Hussein Khalid, who revealed that hundreds of young attendees from Nairobi returning from the Diani Summer Tide Festival were stopped by police at the Dongo-Kundu bypass near Likoni, Mombasa.
Orders from above
According to Khalid, officers informed the youths they could not proceed to catch the 2 pm SGR (Standard Gauge Railway) train back to Nairobi, citing concerns they would attend planned Saba Saba protests on Monday, July 7, 2025.
“Now police are curtailing freedom of movement! … They were to catch the 2 pm SGR to Nairobi, but they have been stopped by police … awaiting ‘orders from above’,” Khalid posted on his X account.
Several roadblocks were equally mounted along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway, with police officers conducting spot checks on the private vehicles passing through the road.
While the government has insisted that Monday, July 7, 2025, is not a public holiday, and that civil servants must report to their duties, several shops and malls have issued notices that they will remain closed/