Tourism Returns: Nothing but Poverty for Community Around Wasini Island in Mombasa

Kenya’s Poverty levels in communities around tourist attraction sites is a worrying trend. Tourists are paying a lot of money to visit the destinations, but community members live in poverty.

The community end up staying at the sites idling the whole day, waiting to do some manual jobs for the visitors for survival which encourages criminal activities.

The coastal areas of Kenya where tourists travel to enjoy the Indian Ocean breeze are mostly affected by cases of people still living in poverty despite having many tourist attraction sites which generate revenue for the country. 

A Public Policy and Governance Advocate, Natasha Kimani, went to her social media page to express her disappointment with the kind of life people at Wasini Island in Mombasa are living despite tourists visiting the area in large numbers to watch dolphins.   

“It almost feels criminal how we get to enjoy watching dolphins in Wasini when the local community is languishing in poverty. There’s only one primary school on Wasini Island and those that make it to High School have to use boats to get to Shimoni,” she lamented.

She went ahead to express her disappointment in how the government has neglected the resident, adding that there is only one dispensary that only stocks Panadol, which is a luxury to the community members.

“A lot of pregnant women have died while being ferried to hospitals on the mainland. There’s also no electricity on Wasini Island,” she added.

Another social media user also blamed the government and other organisations who ferry visitors to the Island to see dolphins for not helping to develop the area, adding that the residents are really suffering.

“In 2019 I worked in the area and stayed in Shimoni for a while. I felt for the local community members especially kids and women, by then there was no tarmac road. The place was and is still undeveloped despite having visitors daily,” he wrote.