Mombasa Roots including Jacky Freeman (vocals), Salim Karama (drums), Hassan Swaleh (keyboards), Edward Toya Farrar (guitar) and Mohamed Khalifa (percussions). For a while, the personnel also included the Nazareth Sisters, a female duet from Mombasa, as well as Saeed Tito, Catherine Wekesa, Adam Solomon, and Susan Kahumbu. Mombasa Roots Mombasa Roots (or Mombasa Roots Band) are a Kenyan afropop/hotel pop musical group. They have recorded some of the most successful hit singles in Kenyan pop music, such as "Disco Chakacha" and "Kata". Their most famous album is "Lele Mama". The band was founded in 1977 by the "Juma Brothers" from Mombasa, i.e.,
Mombasa Mombasa Island. Importantly, both of these names have linguistic and spiritual connections with Central Africa. "Mkisi" is considered the personification of "ukisi" which means "the holy" in kiKongo. "Kongowea" can similarly be interpreted as the Swahili locative of "kongo" which denotes the essence of civilizational order in central Africa. These legends can be read as an acknowledgment of the Bantu-speaking origins of the Swahili people. Shehe Mvita superseded the dynasty of Mwana Mkisi and established the first permanent stone mosque on Mombasa Island. Mombasa's oldest extant stone mosque, Mnara, was built c. 1300. Shehe Mvita is remembered as a Muslim