Ukunda and Diani, twin towns that live off tourism

By Patrick Beja

About 30km south of Mombasa lie the twin towns of Ukunda and Diani.

The two towns in Msambweni District remind one of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Makuyu and Kameno ridges in his book The River Between.

Part of Ukunda town. [PHOTOS: OMONDI ONYANGO/STANDARD]

But unlike the Makuyu and Kameno ridges, which lay side by side on hilly terrain, Ukunda and Diani sprawl flat along some of Kenya’s longest stretch of beaches at the Coast.

They share similar history and both depend on the tourism industry.

Diani, which kisses the beaches, is home to at least 20 star-rated tourist hotels and over 500 luxury villas and cottages while Ukunda, which is a few kilometres off shore, houses the hotel workers.

Political upheavals

Tourism boom in hotels on Diani beach leads to brisk business for rental houses and other economic activities at Ukunda.

It is also here where expensive homes and apartments stand, some fronting the white sandy beaches. Investors keen to exploit tourism industry have built them.

However, the towns have not been spared from political upheavals. During the 1997 Likoni clashes, Diani hotels were the most affected. But the resorts have since risen from the ashes except for the general slump in the industry occasioned by the post-election violence early this year.

Politicians are among the investors in the hotel industry at the South Coast.

Mr Kenneth Matiba owns the Alliance Hotels and Resorts right at the heart of Diani beach zone.

Safari Beach Hotel, Jadini Beach Hotel and Africana Sea Lodge form Matiba’s business empire at Diani. The politician spends his Coast holidays here.

Mr Raymond Matiba, the Chief Executive of the Alliance hotels and resorts, says Jadini Beach Hotel was the first tourist hotel to be built on Diani beach in 1937. It was formerly a cottage. Trade Winds and Two Fishes followed later as tourism took off in Diani. To the northern tip of Diani beach road is Jacaranda Indian Ocean Beach Resort, the magnificent hotel politician Njenga Karume built. As hotels were built over the years, so was an 18-hole championship golf course—Leisure Golf Club—to serve the sporting holidaymakers.

Diani beach is a preferred venue for all sorts of water sports such as kite surfing, scuba diving, sailing and big game fishing, among others.

Friendly dolphins

In South Coast, water sports also involve play with friendly dolphins. Hotels here have also introduced exclusive nature trails in sacred Kaya Chale and Kaya Kinondo for culture tours and to watch various types of birds and monkeys.

Diani is an hour drive to the Shimba Hills National Game Reserve and Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary to the north west, home to elephants and antelopes.

The towns boast of modern facilities for banking and commerce that include shopping malls and superstores.

Diani and Ukunda residents attribute the humble beginning of the twin towns to European farmers who settled there after the First World War and encouraged investors to buy land.

Mr Maxwell Trench, one of the pioneer investors, is said to have built Banda Hotel in the 1920s, which became the present Jadini Beach Hotel while Sandy Hotel followed and later became Trade Winds Hotel.

Ukunda resident Mr Said Yanga, 75, says as a youngster he would herd sheep and goats in the bushes of Ukunda and Diani. Like most villagers, he would also go fishing with his father and play on the sandy beaches, which were fronted by farms in some areas. There were no hotels or tourism activities apart from fishermen, he says.

Pioneers

Yanga and another resident Mr Kassim Hassan say three white farmers who settled at the present Ukunda town encouraged hotel investments.

Yanga later got a job as a gardener with Jadini Beach Hotel and then as a housekeeper at Leisure Lodge where he worked for 22 years.

When the family of 81-year-old businessman, Mr Alibhai Rahim Khan, settled in Ukunda and opened a shop in 1935, the area was a bush.

His father Mr Rahim Khan opened the Ukunda Stores Supermarket and the first petrol station in 1936.

The Khan family still runs the Ukunda Total Petrol Station. Alibhai says the family literally watched Ukunda and Diani towns sprout from the ground.

"Ukunda and Diani are towns built by the tourism industry. Most hotels were built after independence when roads were tarmacked and electricity supplied to this area," he explains.

When the Khan family settled in Ukunda in the 1930s, land could be dished out freely. Today, there is a mad rush and land has turned into gold. A half an acre fronting the Ukunda-Diani road fetches about Sh2.5 million and similar land near the beaches goes for Sh5 million.

Yanga says youths have not found employment in local tourist hotels. Instead, they are harassed and arrested by police as beach operators.

"I benefited from the hotels but my children can’t find jobs and are frequently arrested on the beaches," he says.