Malindi District is one among the seven districts of the Coast Province. The district was carved out of Kilifi District in 1996 in a bid to bring administrative services closer to the people. It borders Kilifi District to the South, Tana River district to the North and Northwest and the Indian Ocean to the East. Its total area of 7605 square Kilometers is divided into three divisions, Malindi, Marafa and Magarini. Malindi division is the largest (5259 Km2) and Magarini is the smallest (729 Km2). The district has two constituencies namely, Magarini and Malindi.

Demographic and population profile

 

 

Sources: British Council and Commonwealth national human rights project - model guidelines in planning public inquiries

Tourist attractions

Malindi District is a famous tourist destination. It is a home for palm fringed silvery white sand beaches, Malindi and Watamu national parks, Gede ruins, Vasco Da Gama’s pillar, the Portuguese chapel and pillar tombs, Kipepeo butterfly farm, snake and crocodile farms, Mida creek and the canyons of Hell’s Kitchen. These are some of the major tourist’s attractions in the district.

Poverty index
The poverty level in Malindi District is relatively higher that the national poverty level 0f 56%. The Malindi poverty assessment report 2000, shows that 66% of the population lives in absolute poverty i.e. they are unable to meet their basic food and non food requirements. Out of the 210 constituencies countrywide Magarini and Malindi are ranked 189 and 139 respectively by poverty estimates.

Poverty levels by division

 

Division	No. of Poor	% of total population
Malindi	113,201	66.7
Marafa	35,290	68.7
Magarini	49,629	62.5

 

Magarini constituency contributes 5.5% and 0.5% to the provincial and national poverty respectively, whereas Malindi constituency contributes 7.2% and 0.7% to the provincial and national poverty respectively. As such it can be safely inferred that the district contributes 12.7% and 1.2% to the total provincial and national poverty respectively.

 

Area	Km2
Total area	7605
Arable land	4193
Non-arable land	3411.8
Water mass	1368.75
Gazetted parks and reserves	3188
Urban areas	88.5

 

Source: Ministry of planning and national development – Malindi district development

Data from Welfare and Monitoring survey 1997 indicated that 11.3% of the household in the district were landless. Many are classified as squatters on private land. The government has adjudicated several schemes but the number of people is way below target. This explains the mushrooming of informal unorganized settlements in Malindi Town. Slums such as Muyeye, Maweni, Kwa Ndomo, Kisumu Ndogo, Kwa Chocha and Marengo Mapya are a testimony of this.

In the rural parts of the district the majority have no legal documents for land ownership. The people own land customarily. Landlessness is further aggravated by population pressure resulting form the high population growth rate 3.9% in the district. The main development challenges as outlined in the District Development Plan 2002-2008 include among other the following:

 

• High numbers of landless people
• High population growth
• Decline in the tourism sector. Some tourist hotels had to close down whereas those that remained continues to operate below capacity.
• The HIV/AIDS scourge.