It’s a tough life in Lamu as tourism hits rock bottom

Tourism has hit rock-bottom in Lamu County despite efforts to lift the industry that has been hard hit by terrorist attacks over the past five years.

Its beaches are as clear as any deserted plain in the savannah. It is difficult to find someone lying on the sand or the springy beds placed along the seashore.

Speed boats that once ferried dozens of tourists each day on sight-seeing within the county’s islands now rock forlornly on the ocean as they wait for their fortunes to change.

Hotels are empty and now survive on the trickle of local tourists who visit on weekends and leave by Sunday evening.

The county that once boasted enviable tourist numbers now has to live with remnants, hopes and dreams of good tidings that went with the past era.

Mr Nguzo Henry, a guard who has worked in Lamu Town for eight years, said things were getting worse each day.

On Saturday, he recounted to the Nation the good old days when the beaches were full of foreign tourists, who would stay for weeks enjoying the sea breeze.

“The hotels were always full and tents were put up along the beaches to accommodate more tourists. Now there is no one in the hotels. Al-Shabaab have really killed our source of income,” he said.

KIDNAPPED

He works in a hotel that is about 100 metres away from where a French woman, Ms Marie Dedieu, was kidnapped by Somalia-based terrorists in October 2011. She later died in the hands of her kidnappers.

The attack in the county’s Mpeketoni area was the latest, and seems to have driven the last nail into the coffin.
Walking through the narrow streets of the town, it is easy to notice that it has been starved of any meaningful activity, as the locals struggle to eke out a living from fishing and selling sea shells.

Mr Mohammed Abdalla, a tour guide, said life has not been the same again since the terrorist group made the town its target about five years ago.

Because there are no more tourists to take around the small islands that make up the county, he hardly finds anything meaningful to do.

“I was born here and I have spent all of my life here, but life is getting tougher each day. We depend on tourists because they are the ones who bring money. Right now, we just have to wait for the local tourists who come in drops,” said Mr Abdalla.
Despite the dire situation, the construction of the Lamu port is giving the locals hope that tourism will get back to where it was.

President Kenyatta is expected to break the ground for the work next week.

The Senate Committee on Infrastructure, chaired by Lamu Senator Abu Chiaba, toured the site last weekend, ahead of the ground-breaking.

Governor Issa Timamy told the committee that the county’s residents expected the port, which is among the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor projects, to improve the region’s economy, which has slumped.