Kwale District with a population of 496,133 (1999 population census) is one of the seven Districts in Coast Province. It borders Taita-Taveta to the West, Kilifi to the North West, Indian Ocean to the East and the Republic of Tanzania to the South. Kwale District has an area of 8260 Km2 of which 62 Km2 is under water, 120 Km2 arable land, 67.7 Km2 non-arable land and 350.4 Km2 gazetted forest. It is a 250 Km coastline.

It is divided into five administrative divisions namely Kinango, Matuga, Kubo, Msambweni and Samburu.
One of the major challenges facing the district is the persistent and increasing incidence of poverty. 31.77% of adults in this district live below food poverty level, w0.23% below absolute poverty and 26.2% below hardcore poverty. Constituency-wise Kinango is among the 5 poorest constituencies in the country ranking 207 out 210 with 75% of its population living below poverty line. Causes of poverty in the district include the following:

 

  • Poor infrastructure development e.g. roads, electricity, water e.t.c
  • Low agricultural production due to land tenure problems,
  • Poor and undeveloped agricultural marketing
  • Poor agro-industry base
  • Vagaries of nature of droughts and flood e.g. the Elnino phenomena
  • Yearly droughts due to rainfall inadequacy particularly in Kinango and Samburu divisions
  • High population dependency ratio.

Land ownership is also another problem facing the district where most land owners do not have title deeds. In addition, there is a large proportion of the population without land while others are living as squatters in their own ancestral land after grabbing/allocation hence farmers are keen on developing their land (which would increase efficiency and production) due to fear of loosing their investment.

HIV/AIDS has not spared the district either the rate of infection in the district is 25%. This varies across the divisions with Matuga having an infection rate of 37.3%, Kinango 33.2% and Msambweni 15.1%. To combat this scourage, there is need to intensify awareness efforts by all stakeholders in the district.

According to the District Development Plan (2002 – 2008, the population if the district is expected to increase to 626,936 by the year 2008. this has a direct impact on the basic needs such as water, food, health and education. This implies that efforts should be made to cater for this population increase and other economic constraints that come with it.