Why Mombasa needs facelift

Adam Forrest wrote in The Guardian newspaper recently that many attempts to regenerate districts in decline or disrepair have often been met with suspicion and cynicism.

Though Forrest may not have had Mombasa County in mind, that is how some viewed the directive issued in March to paint buildings in Mombasa town’s central business district in a uniform colour as the county committed itself to repair and lay concrete blocks on walkways.

The initial reaction from some quarters was far from cordial. Owners of Best Lady Cosmetics even went to court and got an order barring the county from enforcing the directive.

The company argued that all its shops countrywide are painted in pink. The Mombasa directive, argued the business, would hamper its brand visibility.

The court directive aside, almost all of Mombasa’s CBD is spotting the new colour scheme, a move authorities say is aimed at positioning the city as a tourist and business hub.

A spot check by Home & Away showed that many had complied with the directive to paint in blue and white. The city’s pavements are adorned with red concrete blocks while many informal businesses are off the streets.

County officials say the painting of the city is part of the regeneration plan that will  include rearrangement of businesses within the city.

It will also include traffic management that will see trailers relocating to a marshaling yard in Mazeras, creation of a recreational park in Kibarani and Mama Ngina Drive and the construction of Mwache Dam at a cost of Sh4.2 billion to supply the city with water.

Old and unattractive

County Secretary Francis Thoya says the city was getting old and was no longer attractive. The decline was more pronounced on buildings since the city lies next to the salty waters of the Indian Ocean that corrode the structures.

“The idea of regeneration was mooted way back in 2013. It is true there were unforeseen challenges and mixed feelings initially as people were unaware of what we were up to. We cannot, for example, force places of worship to conform to these colours. We need to address the matters that the court raised with regard to business branding,” he says.

Thoya says Mombasa’s CBD is small yet it was crowded by all manner of businesses that gave pedestrians no room to walk. The renewal process, he adds, has slowly created a conducive environment for people to walk.

“While painting will improve the aesthetics of the city, we want to go beyond the colours and create more economic opportunities to locals by attracting investments. Investors will not come to a poorly planned city,” he says.

Already, Mombasa has been chosen to host the prestigious Skal International Congress next month, perhaps a factor that has seen the enhanced cleanup of the city. Mehboob Harunani, the chairman of Skal Congress local organizing committee, welcomed the county’s initiative, saying it would spur real estate developments, especially in the hospitality sector.

Hosea Omole, a landscape architect, term the whole process a “beautification”, and says it could create an illusion that all there is to a regeneration process is a change of colour. He says more thought should be injected into the functionality of the city.

Good start

“While painting and planting flowers is a good start, that alone will not change function. We need to create a story for Mombasa like that of other big cities such as Paris or Singapore. We must ask ourselves what the core values that will sell Mombasa to the outside world are,” says Omole.

Peter Kibinda, an urban planner, says what Mombasa City is doing is a step in the right direction if followed by an integration process for all related urban units. He says the city must check whether its inner fabric is still strong enough to hold all its parts together.

“We normally paint buildings for identity and beauty which are important. I am assuming that Mombasa is looking at an integrated approach. For example, Mombasa has a plan to uplift residential houses, make streets pedestrian-friendly, and infrastructure renewal. Regeneration will add more life and minimise conflicts with users,” says Kibinda.