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"The building of the Uganda Railway started in 1895. AMJ, who had gone back to India, was requested to return and became immediately involved in the recruitment of labour from India and its up-keep. He also took on contracts, which raged from clearing the bush to off-loading railway stock and supplying various goods and services. He constructed railway stations, offices and living quarters as well as a quay at the Kilindini harbor.
The Uganda Railway reached Nairobi in 1899 and Port Florence (now Kisumu) in 1901. The expenditure involved meant that the British Government was now constrained about investment for developing the territory and turned to individuals with capital to assist.
AMJ had made a fortune on the railway; his assets in 1900 were estimated at 4 million sterling pounds (an equivalent of 8 billion pounds today). He offered to build structures for the Colonial Administration on the understanding that the land he thus developed would be leased to him for 10 years and an agreed rental would be paid to him during that period. At the end of 10 years the Government would have the option of buying the buildings or relinquish the land to AMJ.
John Ainsworth was the first Commissioner of Ukambani Province and Nairobi, still a city of tents, came under his jurisdiction. He accepted AMJ’s offer and construction work commenced. Among the buildings erected by AMJ were the following: Ainsworth’s house on the site of the present Lecture Hall of the National Museum, Ainsworth’s office (now Moi Avenue Primary School), a Town Hall which also served as a court (on the site of the present Imenti House), the Survey Department (the buildings are still standing next to the Central Police Station) and the first Museum (the site of the present day Windsor House). In addition, the Government entrusted AMJ with the task of building temporary Government offices, staff quarters and dispensaries between Mombasa and Kisumu as well as police lines, hospitals, post offices and education departments…
AMJ had worked with horses in his younger days and so, not surprisingly, he became the first person in EAP to import racehorses from India. He was a keen race-goer and the first race meets was held in Machakos on 22 June 1897 in honour of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. Rugged Somali ponies were ridden before the horses took over. In 1900 the racecourse was moved to Nairobi, initially near the Railway quarters and in 1904, to Kariokor at the site of the present day Armed Forces base. It remained there until the early fifties when a new course was constructed at Ngong. The road leading to Kariokor is still known as Racecourse Road and the area on the Ngara side of it is marked as 'Jeevanjee State’s. Though AMJ’s horses did well at the races, AMJ became increasingly uncomfortable with the racist attitudes of the settlers and in 1906, withdrew from racing.
AMJ’s businesses included ice and soda factories and import and export of agricultural and industrial products. He was a shrewd businessman and ruthless when crossed. When the owner of the “East Africa and Uganda Mail” tried to grab AMJ’s contract of supplying oil to the Railway, AMJ bought out the supply of oil on the market and eventually sold it to the Railway at twice the original price. Palmer, the owner, took AMJ to court alleging fraud and the case became the subject of a Supreme Court hearing but the judge ruled that AMJ was entitled to the price he had named.
The “Mail” covered the “Castor Oil Saga” word-for-word and after losing the case took on an increasingly anti-Indian tone. In response, AMJ established his own newspaper - the “African Standard”, the forerunner of our East African Standard (EAS). Never one to do things in halves, AMJ imported the first high-speed press in the EAP and recruited William Tiller from London as editor. The press was housed in a building opposite the Old Law Courts in Mombasa. A veritable war of words ensued with the “Mail” becoming increasingly abusive and insulting and Tiller bringing criminal and libel charges against the editor and publisher. As the “Mail” became more and more filled with gossip, important government and commercial news began to be solely published in the “Standard”. In 1904 the “Mail” was declared bankrupt and the following year, AMJ sold the “Standard” to Anderson and Mayer who established the “EAS” - one of Kenya’s major newspapers today."