Mombasa

Ancient and medieval

The founding of Mombasa is associated with two rulers: Mwana Mkisi and Shehe Mvita. According to legend, Mwana Mkisi is the original ancestor of Mombasa's oldest lineages within Thenashara Taifa (the Twelve Nations). Families associated with the Twelve Nations are still considered the original inhabitants of the city. Mwana Mkisi was a queen of the pre-Islamic era who founded Kongowea, the original urban settlement on Mombasa Island.

Significantly, the names of both the queen and the settlement have linguistic and spiritual connections with Central Africa. "Mkisi" is considered the personification of ukisi, "the holy" in kiKongo, and "Kongowea" can similarly be read as the Swahili locative of kongo, denoting civilisational order in Central Africa. These legends are often read as an acknowledgement of the Bantu-speaking origins of the Swahili people.^[5]

Shehe Mvita superseded the dynasty of Mwana Mkisi and is credited with establishing the first permanent stone mosque on Mombasa Island. Shehe Mvita is remembered as a Muslim of great learning, and is thus connected more directly with the present ideals of Swahili culture that people identify with Mombasa. The Thenashara Taifa lineages recount this ancient history today and remain the keepers of local Swahili traditions.^[5]

The exact founding date of the city is unknown, but Kenyan school history books traditionally place it at 900 AD.^[6] It was evidently a prosperous trading town by the 12th century: the Arab geographer al-Idrisi mentions it in 1151.^[7] Mombasa's oldest extant stone mosque, Mnara, was built c. 1300, and the Mandhry Mosque, built in 1570, has a minaret containing a regionally specific ogee arch — evidence, Meier argues, that Swahili stone architecture was an indigenous African development rather than an import.^[8]

During the pre-modern period, Mombasa was an important centre for the trade in spices, gold and ivory, with links reaching as far as India and China, including trade with the Chola dynasty of South India.^[7] Throughout the early modern period it remained a key node in the far-reaching Indian Ocean trading networks; its principal exports were ivory, millet, sesamum and coconuts.^[9]

Ivory caravans remained a major source of prosperity. Mombasa became the major port city of pre-colonial Kenya in the Middle Ages, trading with other African port cities, the Persian world, the Arabian Peninsula, India and China.^[10]

In the late pre-colonial period, Mombasa was the metropolis of a plantation society that had become dependent on slave labour, anchored in the ivory trade.^[11]

The Moroccan scholar and traveller Ibn Battuta (1304–1368/69) visited the Swahili Coast in the 1330s and noted Mombasa, though he stayed only one night. He wrote that its people were Shafi'i Muslims, "religious, trustworthy and righteous", and that their mosques were of wood, expertly built.^[12]

Sixteenth-century Portuguese voyager Duarte Barbosa wrote:

"[Mombasa] is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of which are bound from Sofala and others which come from Cambay and Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar."^[13]

Portuguese domination

Vasco da Gama was the first known European to visit Mombasa, receiving a chilly reception in 1498.^[14] Two years later the town was sacked by the Portuguese. In 1502 the local sultanate became independent of Kilwa Kisiwani and was renamed Mvita (in Swahili) or Manbasa (Arabic).

The Portuguese engaged the city repeatedly: under Francisco de Almeida in 1505, under Afonso de Albuquerque in 1522 to quell a mutiny by the sultan's nephew in Pemba and Zanzibar, and under Nuno da Cunha, who destroyed the city again in 1528 after the Malindi sultan failed to pay tribute.^[15]

In 1585 an expedition of the Ottoman Empire, led by Emir 'Ali Bey, captured Mombasa and other coastal towns of Southeast Africa from the Portuguese,^[16] although Malindi remained loyal to Portugal. The Zimba overcame Sena and Tete on the Zambezi, took Kilwa in 1587, killing 3,000 people, and at Mombasa slaughtered the Muslim inhabitants before being halted at Malindi by the Bantu-speaking Segeju.^[17] This prompted the Portuguese to take Mombasa a third time in 1589; four years later they built Fort Jesus to administer the region. Between Lake Malawi and the Zambezi mouth, Kalonga Mzura allied with the Portuguese in 1608 and fielded 4,000 warriors to help defeat their Zimba rivals, led by chief Lundi.^[17]

After the building of Fort Jesus, the Portuguese placed Mombasa under members of the ruling family of Malindi. In 1631 Dom Jeronimo, ruler of Mombasa, slaughtered the Portuguese garrison and defeated the relief force sent against him; in 1632 he left the city and became a pirate, and the Portuguese returned to establish direct rule.^[17]

Omani rule

With the capture of Fort Jesus in 1698, the town came under the Imamate of Oman, subordinate to the Omani rulers on Unguja, prompting regular local rebellions. Oman appointed three consecutive governors (wali in Arabic, Liwali in Swahili):

• 12 December 1698 – December 1698: Imam Sa'if ibn Sultan
• December 1698 – 1728: Nasr ibn Abdallah al-Mazru'i
• 1728 – 12 March 1728: Shaykh Rumba

Mombasa was briefly returned to Portuguese rule by captain-major Álvaro Caetano de Melo Castro (12 March 1728 – 21 September 1729), then governed by four Omani liwalis until 1746, when the last of them made it independent again (a status disputed by Oman) as the first of its recorded sultans of the Mazrui dynasty:

• 1746–1755: 'Ali ibn Uthman al-Mazru'i
• 1755–1773: Masud ibn Nasr al-Mazru'i
• 1773–1782: Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Mazru'i
• 1782–1811: Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Mazru'i (died 1814)
• 1812–1823: 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad al-Mazru'i (died 1823)
• 1823–1826: Sulayman ibn 'Ali al-Mazru'i

From 9 February 1824 to 25 July 1826 there was a British protectorate over Mombasa, represented by governors. Omani rule was restored in 1826 and seven liwalis were appointed. On 24 June 1837 the town was nominally annexed by Said bin Sultan of Muscat and Oman.^[4] When the Omani dominions were divided in 1856, Mombasa fell to the Sultanate of Zanzibar.

British rule and independence

On 25 May 1887 Mombasa was relinquished to the British East Africa Association, later the Imperial British East Africa Company, and came under British administration in 1895.^[4] It soon became the capital of the East Africa Protectorate and the sea terminal of the Uganda Railway, construction of which began in 1896. Many workers were brought in from British India to build the railway, and the city's fortunes revived. The Sultan of Zanzibar formally presented the town to the British in 1898.^[4]

In 1907 the protectorate's capital was moved to Nairobi. Medical officers had warned that Mombasa's swampy ground threatened health, and the Commissioner of the East Africa Protectorate, Sir James Hayes Sadler, urged London to relocate.^[18] Nairobi has been Kenya's capital ever since.

The Mombasa tusks, one of the city's best-known monuments, were constructed in 1952 by the British administration of the Kenya Colony, commemorating the visit of Queen Elizabeth II.^[19][20]

In 2018, as part of an effort to increase tourism, Mombasa County Governor Hassan Joho directed that all buildings in the Old Town and the central business district be painted white with Egyptian blue trim, and banned signage from their walls and canopies. County Transport executive Tawfiq Balala said the city wanted to be "the most photographed in Africa".^[21]

Under the 2010 Constitution, Mombasa became one of Kenya's 47 county governments in 2013; Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir has served as governor since 2022.^[22]

Mombasa Island

Kizingo: considered the prime residential area of Mombasa. The State House, the provincial headquarters, the Mombasa Law Courts and the Municipal Council are located in Kizingo, as are the Aga Khan Academy, Aga Khan High School, Serani Primary and High Schools, Coast Academy, Jaffery Academy, Loreto Convent, Mama Ngina Girls' High School and the Government Training Institute (GTI).

Central business district: the CBD around the TSS building roundabout, Moi Avenue and Nyerere Avenue is densely populated, hosting organisations such as the Kenya Revenue Authority and banking, insurance and audit firms (including Absa, I&M, Bank of India, PwC, Mazars, Deloitte and PKF).

Kibokoni: part of Old Town with Swahili architecture. Fort Jesus is in nearby Baghani.

Englani: part of Old Town between Kibokoni and Makadara.

Kuze: part of Old Town with Swahili culture and architecture, originally a Swahili quarter that has become more cosmopolitan.

Makadara: part of Old Town with a high number of descendants of Baluchi former soldiers who settled here before it developed into a town. The name derives from the Arabic Qadru r-Rahman, "Decree of (God) the Merciful".

Ganjoni: primarily a middle-class residential area, home to one of Africa's largest dry docks.

Tudor: another middle-class residential area with homes and shops. The Technical University of Mombasa is situated in this neighbourhood.

North Coast

Nyali, a prime upmarket residential area on the mainland north of the island, is linked by the Nyali Bridge. It has numerous beachfront hotels in the area known as the "North Coast", and two distinct sections — the established Old Nyali and the newer New Nyali. For many residents, Nyali has become self-contained, with shopping malls, cinemas, banks, schools and post offices, reducing the need to cross the bridge into the congested city centre. Nyali is home to the Mamba Village crocodile farm, the Nyali Golf Club and several of the coast's most prestigious schools.

Kongowea is a densely populated area with 15 villages and an estimated 106,180 residents at the 2009 census.^[28] It is a cosmopolitan settlement mainly inhabited by people who migrated from the mainland in search of work in the service and manufacturing sectors, many employed as watchmen, gardeners, masons and domestic workers in neighbouring Nyali. Its best-known villages — Kisumu Ndogo, Shauri Yako and Mnazi Mmoja — face poor sanitation, high crime and limited access to basic amenities. Kongowea is also home to one of the largest open-air markets in the African Great Lakes region.

Bamburi is an outlying township along the Malindi road, home to the Bamburi Cement factory, one of the largest cement plants in East Africa. Other notable features are the Jomo Kenyatta public beach (commonly known as Pirates) and Haller Park, a nature trail and wildlife conservancy. Kiembeni Estate, also in the Bamburi area, hosts around 100,000 residents and is among the largest and fastest-growing estates in Mombasa.

Other areas include Shanzu, Mkomani, Bombolulu, Kisauni and, across Mtwapa Creek, the popular town of Mtwapa, which lies in neighbouring Kilifi County.

The North Coast has a large hospitality and entertainment sector catering to locals and tourists.

South Coast

Likoni: a lower-income and lower-middle-class neighbourhood connected to Mombasa Island by ferry. It is south of Mombasa Island and is made up mostly of Swahili and non-Swahili Bantu communities. The ferry channel was the site of the Likoni Riots of 1997.^[29] The Liwatoni Pedestrian Floating Bridge, opened in late 2020, was built to ease pressure on the Likoni ferry crossing by carrying most foot traffic, leaving the ferries to serve vehicular and cargo crossing between Mombasa Island and the South Coast.

Diani Beach: a beach resort area in Kwale County, some 36 km (22 miles) south of Mombasa on the mainland coast, and a prime resort for local and international tourists. Diani has an airstrip at nearby Ukunda serving direct flights from Nairobi Wilson and other airfields.

Mombasa Mainland

Magongo: an outlying township about 20 minutes' drive northwest of Mombasa Island, situated on the Nairobi highway. This fringe community has historically lacked effective electricity, water and sewer systems. Much of the community works on Mombasa Island itself because of limited local employment and industry. There are a number of small health clinics, shops and public primary schools, among them Nazarene Primary, known for its revolving volunteer teacher base from Western, mostly English-speaking countries. Magongo serves as a link between the city and Moi International Airport and is home to the Akamba Handicraft Cooperative.

Mikindani: an outlying township on the mainland along the Nairobi highway, built within the heavy industrial zone of Changamwe and housing mainly working-class residents employed in the industries, the town centre and the port at Kilindini.

Miritini: an outlying township on the Mombasa–Nairobi highway that is growing as a suburban area; it is also the site of the Mombasa Terminus of the Standard Gauge Railway.

Changamwe: an industrial area containing the Kipevu power-generation projects and the former Kenya Petroleum Refineries facility, with housing estates such as Chaani; it is the gateway to Moi International Airport and hosts the administrative offices of the local division and chiefs.^[30]

Migadini and Chaani: two adjacent estates located east of Airport Road and east of the Kenya Ports Authority, bordered by Port Reitz, Magongo and the KPA.

Port Reitz: a suburb on the mainland containing a beach, oil storage facilities and housing estates. Moi International Airport and the Port Reitz Sub-County Hospital are in Port Reitz.

Air

Moi International Airport is the second-largest airport in Kenya, with daily flights to Nairobi and other Kenyan, European and Middle Eastern destinations.^[35] The airport also handles substantial air cargo through its freight terminal.^[36]

Rail

Mombasa has a modern railway station on the Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, whose Madaraka Express passenger and freight services replaced the narrow-gauge Uganda Railway completed in 1901 under British colonial rule.^[37] Completed in 2017 and located at Miritini, Mombasa Terminus links Mombasa to Nairobi; the station, about 20 kilometres from the city centre, is served by the first phase of the Dongo Kundu bypass (opened 2018). Kenya Railways transports passengers and cargo between the two cities on the SGR.^[38]

Road

Most roads in Mombasa are tarmacked. A Mombasa–Nairobi Expressway has been proposed to link the city to the capital; an earlier US$3 billion Build–Operate–Transfer concession stalled and the project was re-tendered in 2022.^[39] The Dongo Kundu Bypass (Mombasa Southern Bypass), whose first phase opened in 2018, was completed with the Mwache crossing in 2024, improving links between the South Coast, the port and the airport.

Within Mombasa, most residents use matatus (minibuses) to move around the city and its suburbs. The tuk-tuk — a three-wheeled motor vehicle carrying no more than three passengers — is widely used, as is the boda-boda, originally a bicycle taxi now almost universally replaced by motorcycles.^[40]

Sea

The port of Mombasa is the largest in East Africa, with 19 deep water berths with two additional berths nearing completion and two oil terminals.^[41] The port is connected by rail and road to the interior.^[41] At present^[when?] there is little or no scheduled passenger service from the port, however, international cruise ships frequent the port. The port is part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast to the Upper Adriatic region. In connection with the Silk Road Initiative, China has started infrastructure development projects in Kenya and is building roads, railways and public buildings on credit.^{[42][43][44][45][46][47][48]}

Ferry

There is no bridge between Mombasa Island and the south coast, instead the route is served by ferries operated by the Kenya Ferry Service from Kilindini and Mtongwe to Likoni in the south coast of Mombasa. The last major accident occurred in 1994 when a ferry serving Mtongwe route sank killing more than 270 people.^[49]

As a result of the increase in more luxurious hotels along the south coast and a lack of a direct bridge linking with Mombasa island, visiting tourists have the option of flying directly from Nairobi into the South Coast airstrip at Ukunda.

The Dongo Kundu Bypass Highway is under construction (as at 2018). With a total of three bridges, it will finally connect the mainland to the south coast easing the burden on the ferry services. Mombasa Gate Bridge will connect the mainland to Likoni, this will eliminate the usage of the unsafe ferry which has claimed hundreds of lives.

Additional schools

• KenCada Academy; This is a school on Mombasa's mainland area of Bamburi, and practices a mixed curriculum which consists of the Kenyan curriculum, CBC and the Canadian curriculum. If counted KenCada brings the list of total International schools in Mombasa to 13.
• HOFACE INTERNATIONAL AUTISM SCHOOL NYALI; This is an international school located on Mombasa's mainland coast of Nyali, and specializes in teaching autistic children.
• Lifegate School; This is an International located on Mombasa's mainland coast of Nyali, and specializes in practicing the Accelerated Christian Education Curriculum (ACE).

Music

Taarab music, which originates from Zanzibar, has a prominent local presence.^[56] Styles of music native to Mombasa include the smooth and mellow Bango, fast-paced Chakacha and traditional Mwanzele.

Musicians of note are Mombasa Roots, Safari Sounds, and Them Mushrooms. Mombasa has been the home or base for former greats such as Fundi Konde, known for his song "Tausi"; Fadhili Williams and Nyota Ndogo.

Recently, hip hop, reggae, soul, blues, salsa and (among the Indian community) bhangra have become popular, especially amongst the youth. Mombasa is mainly a tourism centre with hundreds of entertainment spots of all kinds including night clubs, bars, hotels, and fancy restaurants.

Sports

Mombasa is represented in the Kenyan Premier League by Bandari F.C., which plays at the Mbaraki Sports Grounds. Also, the Congo United FC, Promoted and dropped in 2011, are in the second tier Nationwide Super League with 4 other hometown clubs – Admiral F.C.; Magongo Rangers; Sparki Youth and Coast United.^[57] Derbies between Mombasa teams have become intriguing affairs recently.^[58] Another team, Coast Stars, were relegated several years ago from the league. The only Mombasa-based team to win the league is Feisal F.C., the 1965 champions. Kiziwi leopards was a popular team in the 1980s as was Mombasa Wanderers decades before. There are several cricket teams in Mombasa; one is Mombasa Sports Club (MSC), whose ground was given ODI status in 2006. MSC has also a rugby union team playing in the Kenya Cup League, the premier rugby competition in Kenya. Mvita XI men and MSC ladies represent Mombasa in Kenyan field hockey leagues.

Mombasa is represented in the nationwide rugby league by Mombasa RFC. The city is also host to a leg of the national rugby sevens circuit, being one of only six city hosts. The Mombasa leg is referred to as the Driftwood sevens, and the annual tournament is extremely popular, attracting thousands of fans from across the country.

The 2007 World Cross Country Championships were held in Mombasa. Mombasa Marathon is competed annually in Mombasa. The town also hosts the biennial classic edition of Safari Rally and annually a Kenya National Rally Championship round.

Scuba diving takes place mostly within the Mombasa Marine National Park and Reserve, which is managed and maintained by Kenya Wildlife Service. The park has a length of about 8 km (5.0 mi).^{[citation needed]}