On 1 June 2017, Kenya's national day, the first Standard Gauge Railway train departed from Mombasa and arrived in Nairobi four and a half hours later. President Uhuru Kenyatta was on board. The railway had cost $3.2 billion, mostly borrowed from China. The carriages were air-conditioned. The journey that once took twelve hours by road now took less than five. Kenyans lined the tracks to watch the train pass. It was a moment of genuine national pride. Whether the railway was worth the debt it created was a question that would outlast the celebration.