In the early stages of the growth of Mombasa, little control was exercised over the layout and subdivision of land or over the erection of buildings. As a result, the Old Town of Mombasa grew congested, sparking a serious debate among Europeans and Arabs at the beginning of the 20th century about town planning.
In 1907, a plan to rezone the town according to race was put forward. This was a large undertaking that failed simply because the large purchases of land needed to resettle the population were an enormous expense. This plan was however revisited in 1913, when a South African expert in tropical medicine named Professor Simpson condemned the town as a health risk due to the crowded houses inhabited by casual labourers. While racial subdivision proved to be wholly unattainable, Simpson’s report outlined the need for urban planning. This plan was soon put into action, but a new obstacle was quickly encountered: compensation of landowners and house owners.
In Mombasa, Arabs maintained a general custom of lending land for building or cultivation purposes on a tenancy-at-will basis. When a landlord leased his land, a tenant was allowed to put up a building on it. The tenant was regarded as absolute owner of his building as distinct from the land occupied for which he paid rent. Upon receiving notice to quit, the tenant had the right to remove his house but was not entitled to compensation unless the landlord chose to purchase the house.
As the Mombasa Town Plan was being developed, its most controversial aspect became the house demolitions needed to construct wider roads. Due to the tenancy-at-will ordinance, these demolitions would benefit landowners but not house owners.
Even though the first town planning ordinance was enacted in 1919, building development came to a standstill until 1926, except in limited areas with adequate road frontages. This stalemate was finally resolved when Town Planning Authority agreed to pay house owners up to 50% the value of their dwellings upon demolition.
Once the compensation issues were dealt with, the town planning scheme was put into effect in May 1926. The stagnation of building activity between 1919 and 1926 had led to a housing shortage that created a large demand for residential accommodation, particularly for Africans. As houses that stood on proposed driving roads were demolished, new ones were erected to fill the existing gap. One of the areas where residents were displaced and a new road was built was Macupa, on the northern side of the island near the creek that separated the Mombasa from the mainland. The name Macupa originated from the Swahili word ‘kupa’ used to describe the ebbing of the tide witnessed on this creek. These house owners resettled in the western part of the island, in a place that came to be known as Landi ya Makupa. The road that traversed this region was named Macupa Road and later changed to Makupa Road. The Mombasa Town Plan resulted in the migration of the island’s population westward as large areas of private land were developed for African housing between Macupa Road and the railway in areas such as Kaloleni, Majengo and Shimanzi.
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One of the key figures praised for his contribution to the independence was Jomo Kenyatta. When Kenyatta began advocating for Kenya’s independence, he joined the Kenya African Union and became its chairperson in 1947. Through this organization, he attracted widespread support from Kenyans, leading to his arrest in 1952. Along with five other nationalists, Kenyatta was charged with masterminding the anti-colonial Mau Mau Uprising. He was convicted and imprisoned at Lokitaung until 1959 before being moved to Lodwar until 1961.
Upon his release, Kenyatta became the chairperson of the Kenya African National Union and consequently Kenya’s first Prime Minister during the country’s first general election in 1963. When Kenya became a republic in 1964, the prime minister position was removed and Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya’s first president. To commemorate this momentous occasion, Makupa Road was renamed Jomo Kenyatta Avenue.
