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Kipungani Lamu enjoys a uniquely harmonious relationship with the residents of neighboring Kipungani Village. Twelve of the lodge’s 25 staff come from the village, from where we also buy all our seafood and materials for repairing the buildings. Talking to the 300 residents of Kipungani village, living on the same island as the Kipungani Explorer resort, you get the impression that this little ecolodge on the southern tip of Kenya’s Lamu Island is succeeding where so many others have failed – in bringing the benefits of tourism to those who most need them. In a country that is enjoying a major tourism renaissance, with international visitor numbers nearly doubling since 2001, much of Kenya’s coastal tourism continues to be concentrated on the large beach resorts around Mombasa and Malindi, which famously line the pockets of a few wealthy directors with minimal benefits to the poor fishing communities they live alongside.
At Kipungani, however, these benefits are never in doubt. As well as employing a majority of its staff from Kipungani and nearby Mpakatoni villages, the lodge buys all of its seafood from Kipungani’s fishermen, repairs its seven boats in their boatyards, and hires local craftsmen to weave the makuti thatch and makeka palm from which its Crusoesque bandas are constructed. Most guests make a specific point of visiting the village – a 15-minute walk through sun-dappled mangroves – where the lodge has helped to build a thriving nine-class primary school, and where it recently opened the village’s first permanent health clinic. The clinic receives medicine and hosts volunteer doctors from a Canadian charity, ADRA, and is staffed by a full time local nurse, Ms. Nafisa Mohamed, whose salary is paid for by Kipungani’s owners, Heritage Hotels.
The lodge has been instrumental in setting up the Kipungani School Trust (KST), by building the school (providing transport and labour, as well as facilitating the entire operation.) Kipungani Explorer continues to support this school by “twinning” the school with a school, Paint Pots, in London. The lodge’s most tangible impact in the village is the Kipungani Primary School, which has been transformed from a run-down, poorly attended facility into a model of local learning. The project began in November 1999, when two British guests, John and Georgina Seagrim, were so moved by their visit that they founded a charitable trust in London to rebuild its classrooms and ‘twin’ it with their London nursery school, Paint Pots. Between 1999 and 2002, the Kipungani School Trust spent more than £12,000 building nine classrooms, a staffroom, teachers’ offices and toilets, while a freshwater well, tank and pump were donated by a Kenyan charity, Rift Valley Projects.
The building was carried out in a unique cost-sharing partnership, through which Paint Pots supplied building materials and workers’ salaries while the villagers constructed the makuti roofs, painted the classrooms with local limewash, and transported materials to the site by donkey. The school governor and treasurer are both employees at the lodge, and they and the headmaster meet regularly to discuss the project’s progress. Headmaster Azwaj Ali Mohamed says the partnership has spawned a new respect for education in the village: “With this system of sharing the costs and labour, our villagers have been made to feel they are part and parcel of their children’s education.” Ali keeps detailed records of all financial transactions, which he sends to the trust in London. He also keeps in regular contact with Paint Pots families, three of which have now visited his school.
Perhaps the greatest testimony of the project’s success is the growth of the school itself: in the past two years, a kindergarten class has been added, the school has employed a sixth teacher, and enrolment has nearly doubled. |
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Kipungani Explorer also supports the turtle trust in Kenya by providing a safe haven for nesting sites and attempting to prevent the local inhabitants from taking the eggs and hatchlilngs for food.
Kipungani’s close relations with the community also offer unique opportunities to join local fishermen in their acrobatic attempts to catch giant crabs in the Lamu channel, as well as trips north into the sprawling Dadori reserve, where Kipungani’s fishermen net and sun-dry prawns for sale in the markets of Mombasa. Sebastian is currently drawing up several routes for day-long snorkelling and fishing expeditions in the Dadori archipelago, with picnic lunches and ‘dolphin dives’ en route. Visitors on these excursions may even get a chance to see some of Lamu’s wilder residents, which include whales and rare dugongs, as well as buffaloes and lions that have occasionally been known to venture down to the beach!
Manager Sebastian Chambers own background as a mechanical engineer will stand him in good stead for some of Heritage’s longer-term goals, such as running Kipungani entirely on solar and wind power. The lodge already has several innovative ways of minimising its environmental impact, such as using black reinforced-plastic bags for heating its shower water and planting indigenous trees to provide poles for future construction. But ultimately, the lodge’s aim to match optimal standards of visitor luxury with maximum community benefits and minimal environmental impacts continues to pose serious challenges for its managers.
Already, at least, Kipungani has proven that you do not need giant generators, imported foods, or state-of-the-art gadgets to keep your guests happy. The stunning bandas, cushion-piled driftwood furniture, attentive staff, and spectacularly good seafood have proved a recipe that continues to entice guests back year after year. Thanks to the legacy of Eric Munyasia, himself one of Kenya’s best-known chefs (and now executive chef for the Heritage group), the seafood is still among the finest on the African coast. Thanks to the long-term incentives and training opportunities offered by Heritage, many of the staff have been here for years – and the lodge’s guestbook bulges with praise for their natural hospitality and warmth. And thanks to its location beside a closely-knit Muslim community, Kipungani offers something that has sadly disappeared from so many other African destinations: complete security. (Indeed, at Kipungani, you can go to sleep with your screen-door open to the elements, looking out over a sea -shimmering with reflected stars…)
Best of all, it means that you never get hassled by ‘beach boys’ or local vendors on the 12 kilometres of soft white sand that separate Kipungani from the lively cobbled streets of Lamu’s Stone Town. Kipungani has recently taken on the services of a full-time cultural guide, who takes visitors on day trips to the town’s bustling markets and memorable maritime museum, as well as the evocative ruins of the 14th century fort on neighbouring Manda Island. More energetic visitors can partake of a host of adventurous options, including kayaking in the Lamu channel, coast-hugging voyages aboard Kipungani’s 35-foot dhow, or – a highlight for many visitors – rubbing shoulders with “Africa’s most fearless dolphins” on snorkelling trips to the nearby Kinyika Rocks. |
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