After 55 years, the city of Mombasa is to all intents and purposes an island again, connected to the east by the Nyali Bridge and to the west by the new and operational Makupa Bridge, which connects the northern part of Kenya's second largest city with the mainland to the north, divided by a series of inlets that culminate in lagoons and reconnect with the sea.
Mombasa had in fact become an isthmus when urbanisation at the former bridge formed a stretch of land that housed the huge Kibarani landfill, much of whose waste was dumped into the Port Reitz Canal. The passage was provided by a double road leading to the commercial port on one side and the Moi International Airport on the other. That part of town was for many years the first 'vision' of Kenya for thousands and thousands of tourists who travelled from Mombasa to the tourist resorts on the north coast, from Nyali to Bamburi, Kilifi, Watamu and Malindi.
The reclamation of the landfill, desired by former Mombasa governor Hassan Joho and carried out thanks to the investments of the Kenyatta government, has transformed the area, with the modern bridge, inaugurated last July by Kenyatta himself, finally in operation, cutting through the centre and allowing traffic to flow away, and with green gardens in place of the landfill, on the initiative of the private company Mombasa Cement.
The road also connects to the Changamwe interchange that links directly to the airport and the Mombasa-Nairobi highway. According to marine conservationists and residents' associations, the return of Mombasa to an island dimension will benefit the marine ecosystem, thanks to the return of ocean currents and the free flow of the aquatic microclimate.