Day Nine - Lamu Island

We are leaving Gregory and Natasha behind with their grandparents since the sojourn to the Lamu Archipelago 55 kilometres away is a rushed affair. We leave the house at 7.00 am and cycle to Mpeketoni town some 45 minues away where we board a rickety Nissan matatu (the only one in a radius of like 300 kilometres) that packs 18 passengers. There was rain overnight and our driver is careful in the muddy conditions. This matatu compliments about 10 buses that ply back and forth between Mombasa -Mukowe routes daily. We have a very slow 2 hour drive passing through Mkunumbi and Hindi townships.

On reaching the Mukowe jetty, we find it under construction. There is not much of a town here, but half the government ministry offices are based here rather than on the island. If you are going to the islands, this is where you part with your four-wheeled contraptions. There is a big parking yard with vehicles of all shapes, size and nationality. Most are large 4 x 4s, government and parastatal registered and buses that leave for Mombasa the next morning.

From Mukowe, you can clearly see the Manda island a kilometre or so away. Mangrove forests fringe the whole island as all others in the archipelago. To get to Manda Bruno (the main settled island) you travel 5 kilometres northwards where the sudden and splendid view of the sea front full of white-washed Swahili-cum-Arabic style houses. The jetty is a beehive of activity with speedboats and ancient sail-driven dhows offloading supplies and passengers. Every imaginable supply for the 17,000 residents of Lamu has to be “imported” from the mainland. It costs 50/- to cross the channel by the matatu-like big wooden boats that pack in as many as 50 passengers or 100/= for the more exclusive fiberglass speedboats that take less passengers..

Lamu is laidback and easy. There are no beach boys, as one would expect with all the interest that UNESCO’s branding of these islands, as a World Heritage Site would generate. All the important government and leisure establishments are to be found on the two-kilometre sea front area. The DC’s office, Kengen power station, Lamu Museum, Airline booking offices, hotels, like Lamu Palace, Petleys, KPA, KAA, Catholic Church, numerous mosques, the King Fahd District Hospital, Fisheries Department, Public Works Department and KCB- the only bank here. We are lucky to see all the three motorized vehicles on the island- the DC’s land rover, the Municipal Council’s garbage removal tractor with its trailer and limo stretch tuk tuk that acts as the island’s only ambulance.

Despite all the sense of isolation and distance that one feels, there is a functioning ATM machine at KCB bank and I use the Visa Electron-enabled facility to withdraw some money. You also notice a large number of satellite dishes on most rooftops assuring one that contact with the outside world is made possible by technology. How comforting that modern technology lives side by side with a culture and buildings that date back six centuries.

Although it is raining, we walk the sea front all the way to Shella beach, then return through the narrow streets of the town where we dodge the famed Lamu donkeys and kids playing in the rain. The whole experience transports me back to numerous old Indian cities I have visited in the past. A host of other towns along the coastline including Malindi, Mombasa Island, Dar-es-salam and Zanzibar enjoy similar seemingly disorganized layout and architectural features. They are unique and should be protected as part of our national heritage.

We are sooner back on the sea front where I meet and make acquintance with one Mzee Farhan Shaban, a 75 year old care taker in a local mosque. He also takes care of the historical Peleleza House. He gives us a discourse on the island history, rulers and settlement from 1350 to the present day. He is proud of having “retired” from three jobs. He was once a guard on a Mau Mau camp on the island, then worked for a mzungu and finally in government service. He is on a pension and happy that all his children are able to take care of themselves. I promise to seek him out the next time I am on the island. After walking around in the wet condition, we decide to have lunch at the Hapa Hapa restaurant where we have snapper fish and rice.

At 4.30 pm, we cross over to Mukowe to catch the 5.00pm bus back to Mpeketoni. We reach Mpeketoni at 6.30 pm and cycle back to Bomani in moonlit roads and paths. The children, we learn, have had a packed day. We shower, dine and chat the night away. Tomorrow we leave for Mombasa at dawn.