Multi-billion Mombasa city upgrade plan forwarded to State

Tourists at Mombasa's Swahili Beach Hotel. The county wants to increase tourist hotel occupancy to 80 per cent. [File, Standard]

Mombasa county has prepared an ambitious plan to upgrade Kenya’s second largest city.

Dubbed Mombasa County Urban Regeneration Project, the plan has been developed by the county government and department of housing and urban development in consultation with the ministries of Tourism and Environment.

It has since been forwarded to the state department of housing and urban department.

It includes plans for an international conference centre, affordable homes, a high rise parking lot, storm water drainage system, a fish port, slaughterhouse, bus rapid transport and a cancer screening and treatment centre.

The projects will be funded through Public Private Partnership (PPP), mainly through the tourism fund, government loans and development partners.

Yesterday, deputy governor William Kingi said the plan was meant to position Mombasa as a manufacturing and value addition hub with world-class infrastructure.

According to Dr Kingi, the national government is expected to repossess grabbed land for building key infrastructure.

“Mombasa is the second largest city and needs to be planned and positioned to be a major manufacturing and value addition centre, basic infrastructure has to be there to open it up,” he explained.

Various players were involved in developing the plan, including  tourism and environment ministries as well as experts from Kenya Ports Authority and Technical University of Mombasa.

Conference centre

The plan envisions the construction of Mombasa International Convention Centre (MICC) at  between Sh6 billion and Sh10 billion to boost conference tourism at the Coast.

It also envisions increasing the average annual hotel occupancy from the current 40 per cent to 80 per cent  by 2025 and ensure year-round tourist visits.

“Conferences attract tourists all-year-round and has a higher per capita expenditure compared to leisure travel. The County does not have a purpose-built convention centre making it impossible to bid for most international conferences,” the planners noted.

The county is also seeking to build a high-rise vehicle parking lot at Makadara grounds. The estimated Sh620 million facility will create a parking space for 1000 vehicles.

“Convectional parking is proving infeasible. The solution for parking requirements is a multi-level car parking system to maximise car parking capacity by utilising vertical space,” states the project plan.

The county wants to implement Sh50 billion mass urban housing project in its 12 existing estates to plug a 380,000 unit deficit in the city.

The targeted estates for redevelopment are Miritini Green, Changamwe, Tudor, Khadija, Mzizima , Buxton, Likoni Customs, Likoni Flats , Nyerere, Mvita, Tom Mboya and Kaa Chonjo.

The plan acknowledges that the city has limited space for expansion against a rapidly growing population.

Informal settlements

The city also faces the challenge of informal settlements estimated at 72 currently, justifying the need for decent and affordable housing.

The county seeks to lay out a Sh1 billion storm water drainage system to address perennial flooding that has has led to loss of lives and property in the past.

The 46.9-kilometre system will cover Mvita, Changamwe, Jomvu, Kisauni, Nyali and Likoni sub-counties.

The county also plans to start a Sh6.2 billion bus rapid transport system to ease movement within Mombasa City, a Sh2.5 billion fish port and processing plant and a Sh1.65 billion slaughterhouse.

It also plans to establish a comprehensive cancer care and treatment centre on land to be provided by Kenya Ports Authority (KPA). This is expected to address growing challenges in cancer management that sees patients traveling to Nairobi or abroad to seek treatment.