Mombasa island was first referred to as ''Manbaça'' or ''Manbasa'' when the Sultanate became autonomous from Kilwa Kisiwani in 1502.
Manbasa is the Arabic form of the Kiswahili name "Mvita" derived from Shehe Mvita, the founding father of the island city. Mombasa was also known as the “Island of Mvita.”
Some sources claim that Mvita was derived from Mombasa’s violent history over the centuries. The history supposedly earned the city the Kiswahili nickname “Kisiwa Cha Mvita”, or the “Island of War”, while most European travelers referred to it as Mombaz.
While it was a British Protectorate for two years between 1824 and 1826, Mombasa was fully given to the British Imperial East African Company in 1898 where the Sultan of Zanzibar officially leased the town to the British government in 1895 as a follow-up to an agreement made in 1885.
Mombasa became the capital city of the Protectorate of Kenya sometime between 1887 and around 1906 until Kenya’s capital was moved to Nairobi around 1906.
"Technically, and legally, the coastal strip that is today the Kenyan coastline remained part of Zanzibar until it was ceded to independent Kenya in 1963," quotes afrolegends.
The town of Mombasa is centered on Mombasa Island but extends to the mainland via two creeks, Tudor Creek in the north and Port Reitz in the south.
Mombasa boasts of diverse cultures, people and tourism due to its proximity to Zanzibar, Nairobi and the Indian sub-continent.