By, Isaacnezer Njuguna
Welcome to our latest series, Climate Locals. We’re spotlighting members of the E Co. team and how climate change is impacting their hometowns. We are proud to be a global team that draws on first-hand experience from cities around the world. This week, we’re heading to Mombasa, Kenya with our Consultant, Isaacnezer Njuguna who discusses community and the challenges Mombasa faces due to climate change, including sea-level rise, flooding, and coastal erosion.
As an African, the concept of home is much bigger than just myself. Growing up, I was as much my parents’ child as I was my neighbour’s. We celebrated when my neighbour would buy a bicycle for his son, just as we would celebrate when my mom would buy me a football. We would heed the call for baraza by the chief, and listen keenly, agreeing with each other on communal solutions towards addressing rising cases of insecurity, or keeping safe from elephants when they crossed over the game park’s fence.
Today, while the concept of home has significantly faded due to rapid urbanisation and the growth of digitalism, fragments of home still exist in Secondary Cities. Compact and (relatively) small, they balance cosmopolitan with a strong sense of belonging. In Kenya, for example, there is Mombasa: a coastal city with rich Swahili tradition that wholesomely embraces the ideals of community-hood, of togetherness. I am more likely to get a warm greeting and genuinely hearty conversation from a stranger while walking the streets of Mombasa than in Nairobi.
As the coastal and port city of Kenya, Mombasa is the country’s second largest city, but smaller in contrast to the capital; Nairobi. It covers an area of 229 square kilometres, which is almost 3 times the size of Nairobi, and its population of approximately 1.5 million people is also 3.6 times that of the capital. Mombasa is East Africa’s largest port city, with the blue economy being the main economic driver.
From overcoming a Tsunami in 2004, to severe flooding reported in 2006, 2017, 2022 and 2024, affecting over 70,000 households, the impact of climate change on the city’s aging physical and tourism infrastructure is evident. The city is constantly at risk of sea-level rise, flooding and coastal erosion, exacerbating impacts on public health and the urban poor, in addition to the economic impacts felt by tourism stakeholders.
Mombasa, typical of secondary cities in the region, continuously taps its unique cultural and societal integration to amplify climate resilience, for socio-economic development, and economic benefit. The trend – local climate action – is synonymous with secondary cities across Sub-Saharan Africa, buoyed by relatively high socio-cultural homogeneity, which makes it relatively easier to rally local communities around common societal issues. Evidence from the Global South shows an increasing financial and infrastructure development disparity between primary and secondary cities. While more resources – for infrastructure and economic resilience – are concentrated within the capitals, secondary cities tend to leverage their collective social capital, binding together to protect their livelihoods and infrastructure from any shocks or threats. Thus, the sense of urgency to make homes, neighbourhoods, livelihoods and every supporting system resilient is more pronounced in secondary cities, with closely-knit community structures playing a key role in facilitating deeper levels of community engagement and collective decision-making.
In 2023, Mombasa city launched its own City Local Adaptation Booster (City LAB), to unify community actions and voices with civil society and international development partners, to scale up local solutions towards perennial city flooding challenge. The result has been a 25-year climate action plan (the city’s first), as well as growth in youth and community groups – actively engaged in marine litter collection, blue economy, waste management, mangrove and other marine protection solutions. Homegrown solutions to home challenges.
Notably, local action for sustainable cities is the theme for the World Urban Forum 2024, with the concept of home strongly underscored as a catalyst for local action discourse around cities and climate crisis as well as climate and city infrastructure finance. With secondary cities continually recognised as the new frontiers for economic growth in developing regions, homegrown solutions towards climate resilience are paramount. Keep an eye on Mombasa!
Now, my home is E Co. It’s a much bigger home, with extended family tentacles reaching Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. With more than 30 family members working in secondary cities across various backgrounds and contexts – working to make (and find) their homes in secondary cities. A home that is dedicated towards city climate resilience across many fronts: whether its programme development towards flood-resilient city development in Bhutan; to supporting stakeholder consultations towards developing renewables financing in Cape Town; and supporting smart & sustainable urban mobility solutions in the Balkans – E Co.’s commitment to supporting local action and homegrown city resilience solutions remains strong. Home far from home?
