Mombasa Tusks
Four aluminium arches curve across Moi Avenue in the centre of Mombasa, meeting overhead in pairs so that traffic drives through them. They are the city’s shorthand image, they appear on everything printed about Mombasa, and they take about ten minutes to see. Almost every account of them gets the date slightly wrong.
1952 and 1956
The first tusks went up in 1952, put there by the British colonial administration to mark the visit of Princess Elizabeth, who was in Kenya days before she became queen. Those originals were temporary decoration: wood and canvas, erected on what was then Kilindini Road, on the route toward where the royal party was staying.
They made enough of an impression that the municipal council decided to make them permanent, and a new set was commissioned in 1956, prompted in part by Princess Margaret’s visit that year. These are the ones standing today. They were fabricated in aluminium by a local firm, and aluminium was the right call on a humid coast: it has held up for seven decades where painted steel would not have. There are four of them because the road was widened, giving two tusks over each carriageway.
The distinction matters because the tusks are routinely described as having been put up in 1952, which is true of the idea and false of the objects. What a visitor photographs today dates from 1956.
What They Are and Are Not
No ivory was involved at any point. They are hollow metal arches shaped like tusks, and the elephant reference is symbolic, a colonial-era nod to Mombasa’s history as the port through which ivory left East Africa, which is an uncomfortable thing for a city emblem to commemorate and part of why they are worth a moment’s thought rather than only a photograph.
Look at them from a little way down the avenue rather than from underneath. From that angle the four arches resolve into the letter M, which is either a deliberate touch or a happy accident depending on who is telling you, and which is invisible from directly below.
Mombasa County refurbished the structures in 2017 in partnership with a local cement company, and an elephant sculpture was added at the centre of the arrangement at the same time.
Seeing Them
The tusks stand on Moi Avenue, open to the street, free, and visible at any hour. There is nothing to enter and nothing to pay. Most visitors stop for photographs on the way between Fort Jesus and the rest of the city, and a tuk-tuk from the fort or the Old Town takes a few minutes.
This is a live carriageway with moving traffic, and the photograph everyone wants is taken from the middle of the road. Use the pavement and the central reservation, and be aware that vendors and guides work this spot and will approach you.
Morning light is better than afternoon for the arches themselves. Combine with Mama Ngina Waterfront at the end of the day, which is a short ride away. The Mombasa guide has the wider city.
Mombasa Tusks Questions
Are the Mombasa tusks made of ivory?
No. They are hollow aluminium arches shaped to resemble tusks. The reference is to the ivory trade that once passed through the port, not to any actual ivory.
When were they built?
The first pair, in wood and canvas, went up in 1952 for Princess Elizabeth’s visit. The aluminium set standing today was commissioned by the municipal council in 1956.
Do they really spell an M?
Seen from along the avenue rather than from beneath, the four arches read as the letter M. Whether that was intended is not settled.
Is it worth going out of the way for?
Not on its own. It is a ten-minute stop on a route you are already taking between the fort, the Old Town and the waterfront.
5 Places to Visit in This Area
Other sites in Mombasa, each with its own guide.
Safaris That Visit Mombasa
Every safari listed here that visits Mombasa. Each is sold and run by an independent tour company. This site lists them and passes on enquiries; it takes no booking and charges you nothing.
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