Insight: You Converted All Bars To Coffee And Biriani Houses Lawyer Donald Kipkorir Breaks It Down Why Mombasa Is Dying

By DBK

Open Letter to My Friend, Fauz Khalid aka Abu Sakeena
MOMBASA

RE: Why Mombasa City (And Nairobi ) Is Dying

Fauz,

Great cities that remain alive have character. Damascus, Rome, London & Athens have remained alive from the time they were established thousands of years ago. Modern cities like Vienna, Cape Town, Melbourne, Toronto and Montreal are great for what they are and offer.

Today, when we spoke, like many times before, you reminded me that Mombasa City is dying and no one is saving it. Many residents of Mombasa honestly think SGR killed it. I have never supported SGR but it didn’t kill Mombasa. The residents and leaders of Mombasa killed it. All cities and towns in a Kenya have been killed. Let me tell you why all Cities and towns in Kenya are dying.

Great Cities have beautiful transport system, power supply and water supply infrastructure. Across History, people congregate and continue living in an urban settlement because of these. Rome of 2,000 years ago had all these. When the British Colonialists built our cities less than 100 years ago, they tried to borrow modern urban planning which survived their rule. When they left in 1963, we converted our Cities and towns to villages.

Great Cities have educational institutions from Kindergarten to Universities that are world class. They also have Theatres, Museums and Hospitals that are world class. Only Nairobi tries with these. But not much. The other cities including yours have nothing. Even your own leaders don’t trust your schools or hospitals.

Great Cities have excellent restaurants, bars, clubs and liberal life. And security. Tourists go to a city that offers cuisine thst delights, lots of alcohol, entertainment and liberal sex life. Malta is a dry island but one of the richest countries because of tourism. They receive tourists five times its population. Literally, any restaurant in Malta serves 5* food. There, the government closes its eyes to prostitution and marijuana. You will hardly see Policemen in Malta yet there is no crime. Your people in Mombasa converted all bars to coffee and biriani houses. Tourists won’t travel all the way to Mombasa to take coffee or biriani. Tourists are not pilgrims. I won’t either.

And great cities have to have a working environment policy. The cities must be clean. Garbage must be collected. Urban planning is respected. Kiosks, matatus and hawkers are out of CBDs. In Kenya, kiosks, matatus, boda Boda and hawkers reign supreme. Garbage is never collected.

Bottom line, Cities in Kenya including Mombasa, Nairobi, Malindi, Naivasha, Nakuru, Nanyuki and beautiful suburbs like Karen and Westlands are dying because we have brought our villages to them. We have killed the souls of liveable cities. Cities have to have life. By killing clubs, bars, red-light districts and allowing kiosks, matatus and hawkers, we are killing our cities.

The Chinese haven’t done us much good, but they didn’t kill our cities. Our cities will only be revived if we elect leaders who are transformative and visionary. This generation is guilty of destroying Kenya and its cities with selfish and short term goals.

Jioni Njema Kaka.