Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka on Saturday at the Mama Ngina Waterfront during the Mombasa Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) meeting called for Mombasa to be named a free port.
"I propose that Mombasa County, the whole of it, be declared a free port," the former vice president said.
Should the proposal by Kalonzo Musyoka be implemented, what would that mean?
To get a sense of what that would mean in practice, understanding the definition of a free port would help significantly in that quest.
The Business Dictionary defines a free port as a free trade zone encompassing an entire port area such as Hong Kong, Isla Margarita, Panama, and Singapore, where imported merchandise may be stored duty-free pending re-export or duty-paid entry into the importing country.
What that means in simple terms is that businessmen and women who would be importing goods to Kenya through Mombasa will be spared taxation as long as they export to other countries the goods from Mombasa.
That would only happen if the port city is declared a free port.
Manufacturing would also go on without the intervention of the customs authorities that are in charge of tax collection.
Free ports act as magnets for heightened business activities which would make Mombasa attractive to those doing business, leading to the creation of employment for the local people.
Everything good also has its downside.
Declaring Mombasa a free port may turn it into a place where shady dealings like money laundering, identified by a Guardian article as a free port downside, thrive.