Malindi Kenya

Malindi is situated about 120 km north of Mombasa just a little south of the equator. The district has a coastline of 155 kilometres, Tourism is a thriving business in Malindi. Beach hotels and other luxury hotels dot the town of Malindi. Residential villas that house tourists and foreigners have also become a common feature. The sunny beaches and marine parks are a major tourist attraction.
Malindi was founded as a town in the early thirteenth century by the Arabs. Historians believe that before the arrival in East Africa of Arabs from Arabia and the Persian Gulf the town of Malindi most likely did not exist. In the years that followed the economy of Malindin depended on fishing, hunting, agriculture, and trade in the Indian Ocean.

Arabs were the rulers, there were Africans and Indians as well. The Africans were the majority. In Malindi there were around 1000 Arabs, 2500 Africans in or by Malindi and additional 2000 Africans in the surrounding plantations. The inhabitants were of therefore different races.
Malindi’s extension was app. 600 m along the seafront and inland up to 250 meters. Malindi was surrounded by walls. The Arabs were living inside the walls in stone houses, the African mainly outside in mud-and-wattle huts with palm thatch roofs. The houses of the Arabs were rectangular, multi-storied houses made out of coral stones with flat roof and mangrove rafters used to support the ceiling. The rooms were designed around a central courtyard.
The wealth of Malindi started declining in the first half of the sixteenth century. There was a constant harassing of Arab and Indian Vessels from the Portuguese that want to have control over trade in East Africa.

Agriculture is the economic activity in the Malindi. There were large plantations with fruits (lemons, oranges), coconut palm trees, vegetables (millet, rice, sugar cane), cattle and meats. Slaves and ivory were exported. Malindi was an important port in East Africa. Because of the monsoon places all over the Indian Ocean could be reached. Malindi had an increasing importance throughout the fifteenth century.
Around 1666, the Portuguese lost completely control of Malindi.
In 1861, the Sultan of Zanzibar refounded Malindi. The Sultans territories on the coast of East Africa stretched from southern Somalia to southern Tanganyika. He sent soldiers to supervise the resettlement and the planting of grains. 50 Arabs, mostly from Lamu, were clearing the land for several kilometers around the town with the help of a thousand slaves. They planted mainly millet and maize along with coconuts, bananas and mangoes. Malindis wealth continued to increase from 1861 to 1890. It was administered by Arab governors appointed by the Sultan of Zanzibar and supported by a garrison of between thirty and one hundred and fifty Baluchi troops. Around 1890 the population of Malindi town is estimated to be around four hundred persons. The main factor for the tremendous growth of the population and the agricultural economy was the extensive use of slaves.

After the abolition of slave trade in 1873 greatly affected Malindi’s economy.

In the late 1890 with the restrictions in slave trade and the following lack of slave labor agriculture in Malindi region began to decrease. The Arabs were partly unwilling to hire the local Africans on a wage basis.

In 1887 the British East Africa Association hired from the Sultan of Zanzibar his territories on the East African coast from Vanga in the south to Kipini. In their territories the Company had control over the administration of the entire area, the collection of taxes and customs duties. In the following year the Sultan asked the company to oversee in his name some large plantations in the Malindi area.
1895 the Sultan of Zanzibar transferred the lease of the ten-mile coastal strip to British government. The Britain gained the privilege of exercising full executive judicial, fiscal and political control over the area.

From 1890 to 1910 the agricultural economy declined. The economic stagnation of agriculture was temporarily terminated when a new group of Europeans began planting (1906) and exporting large quantities of rubber from their plantations. 1917 ended this period because the price of rubber fell sharply because of overproduction in Malaya.

The years between 1925 and 1938 were characterized by droughts, which were often followed by floods. The agricultural production declined. Famine relief was common during this period. On the other hand there was a big increase in production of cotton until the year 1935, when the price of cotton decreased sharply. From 1925 to 1938 exports from Malindi port to coast and foreign destinations declined by more than one half. During the 1920’s the road to Mombasa was greatly improved, but the port facilities of Malindi remained as primitive as they were in 1861. Therefore after 1924 many export commodities were sent out of the region not so much through the port but were more transported to Mombasa by lorry.
In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s a few Europeans from upcountry and from Mombasa came to Malindi to spend a short holiday at the sea. 1932 opened the first hotel (Brady’s Palm Beach Hotel), 1934 the second (Lawford’s Hotel). The waters of Malindi became internationally known as the best for deep-sea fishing on the East African coast.

During the World War II there was not much economic development in the Malindi area. Although by late 1939 all the tourists had left Malindi, they were more than compensated by the arrival of many soldiers. By late 1944 the holidaymakers from upcountry were returning, and the army was slowly pulling out, so that Malindi once again returned to normal. Immediately after World War II two new Hotels (Malindi Hotel, later named Sindbad Hotel and Eden Roc) were built north of the town on the seafront.1948 the population of Malindi Town was 3,292. In the period from 1929 to 1948 the population of Malindi Sub District increased from about 27,000 to 39,000 (+42%).

1962 the population in Malindi Town increased to 5,818. The largest percentage increase was that of the European population. Most of the European were retired people from the highlands. By the late 1950’s when it was obvious that Kenya would obtain independence from Britain, more European farmers decided to retire permanently. The big impetus to retirement from the highland farms came in late 1962 in the year before Independence. Most of the Europeans settle down north of the old town . During the Arab, Portuguese and Zanzibar periods, this area was covered by plantations, which stretched from the immediate outskirts of the town to several miles north. It was not until after World War II that it was developed as residential area. In the south of the Old Town, around Vasco da Gama Point and extending to Silversands as far as Casuarina Points another strictly residential area was developed. Almost all the European-owned houses faced the sea. In the early 1960’s the fifth tourist beach hotel was constructed, the Driftwood Beach Club. With the arrival of so many Europeans in Malindi after World War II, there was pressure by the new residents for the improvement of the services and amenities of the town. To gain money for these improvements in Malindi 1952 local taxes (rates) were introduced. New roads were constructed, electricity introduced, new schools built and a new hospital constructed.

Until the late 1960’s there were two different types of tourists who came to Malindi: the East African Residents, especially from Kenya and the overseas visitor from Western Europe who flied directly to Malindi (with a change of aircraft in Nairobi). The majority of the overseas visitors came from England, France, Switzerland and Germany. Before the advent of charter flights from Europe in 1965, the five tourist beach hotels were small. Until 1969 they nearly triple their bed capacity up to 614 beds.

In the 1960’s also in Watamu opened three tourist hotels: Watamu Beach (1967), Seafarers (1966) and Ocean Sports (1956, but rooms were not added until 1967). Their bed capacity increased from 1966 from a total of 20 beds to 1968 to a total of 208 beds. End of the 1960’s tourism industry became the largest single business sector in the town. Over half of the money spent by visitors was originated from outside East Africa.

In the period from 1945 to 1968 the population in the Malindi Sub District expended dramatically from 40,000 to 93,000 (+133%). Part of this expansion is due to the migration of Giryama people into the Sub District.