Indian businesses and services in Mombasa, Kenya

On the Swahili coast, the connection with India is far older than the colonial era. Merchants from India were trading across the Indian Ocean with the monsoon winds for centuries before the railway was built, and Vasco da Gama found Indian communities already settled here, and Mombasa's Indian-origin community today includes families who have been on the coast for many generations: Hindus, Jains and Sikhs, as well as Muslim communities such as the Bohras and Ismailis.

The historic commercial area is on Mombasa Island, in and around the Old Town and the streets of the city centre. Biashara Street, with its kanga and textile traders, is one of the best-known, and the area remains the place for spices, cloth and household goods. Many families live on the island, and others on the mainland.

Mombasa has a wide range of Hindu, Jain and Sikh places of worship. The white marble Jain temple on the edge of the Old Town, completed in 1963, is carved from floor to ceiling, and there are Swaminarayan temples, including a BAPS mandir on the mainland, as well as a Sikh gurdwara. Diwali and Navratri are the high points of the year, and garba nights bring the Gujarati and Kutchi communities together in large numbers. The climate is hot and humid, so mornings and evenings are the most comfortable times to explore the Old Town, and modest dress is appreciated in temples and in the older parts of the city. The Likoni ferry links the island with the south coast.