Mombasa–Garissa Road system that is subject to the country's national speed limit of . In 2006, the Kenyan Government budgeted KSh2 billion (almost £16 million GBP in 2008) to resurface the section between Mombasa and Malindi, through Kilifi. The Garsen to Garissa section of this road, measuring about , remains in poor condition, marked by potholes and a dusty surface. In Mombasa, the Mombasa–Garissa Road connects to two other major roads: (a) the Nairobi–Mombasa Road (A109) and (b) the Malindi–Bagamoyo Highway (A14), north-eastern Tanzania. In Garissa, this road meets the Thika–Liboi Road, connecting Thika, in Kiambu County to Liboi in Garissa County,
Mombasa Peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent and China. 16th-century Portuguese voyager Duarte Barbosa claimed, "[Mombasa] is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of which are bound from Sofala and others which come from Cambay and Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar." Vasco da Gama was the first known European to visit Mombasa, receiving a chilly reception in 1498. Two years later, the town was sacked by the Portuguese. In 1502, the sultanate became independent from Kilwa Kisiwani and