The building was bought from the Bohra community for 2,000 English Pounds after a longer period of occupation by the Medical Department who had used the building to serve as the Malindi Native Civil Hospital. The exact date of construction is not known but when Thomas Alfree was buying the property from the Bohra community, as discussed in his undated autobiography, even the oldest Bohra who was then more than ninety years old could not remember when it was built. We can, nonetheless suggest a date of construction perhaps the last quarter of the 19th century, a time bracket that saw these type of building style fashionable especially in the old towns of Lamu and Mombasa. Thomas Alfree bought the house from a grant to the Marine Division of the Fisheries Department for purposes of establishing a Kenya Marine Fisheries Station in Malindi. Unfortunately, Alfree in his autobiography is silent on the date he signed the lease agreement of 99 years but definitely must have been during the first half of British Colonial period in Kenya.
After occupation by Fisheries department, the building became the office for Kenya Wildlife Services before it was handed over to the National Museums of Kenya in 1999. On 10th May 2004 the building opened its doors to the general public as Malindi Museum.
Rabai is well known in the annals of history as the place where Christianity and modern learning in Kenya started well over 150 years ago. In 1994 the Krapf Memorial Museum was founded to give formal and a perpetual reminder to monumental events during the advent of early missionaries. Stories about the first missionaries were passed on by word of mouth and are still told today.
Built in 1846 as the first Church edifice in Kenya, Rabai is situated about 25 km north-west of Mombasa, off the Nairobi-Mombasa highway on Mazeras-Kaloleni road, about half an hour?s drive from Mombasa.
The Mida Creek is a luxurious, yet rustic boutique style hotel located on the south side of Mida Creek in Watamu, Kenya. Sitting on a small beach and benefiting from the cooling effects of its huge makuti roof, The Mida Creek has six rooms which can accommodate up to 20 guests. Additionally, the hotel has its own private swimming pool, bar, restaurant, gym and two sun terraces
One of the most underrated sites on the Kenyan coast, an excursion out to Marafa depression is well worth the hour drive from Malindi. Named by the natives Nyari, ‘the place broken by itself’, the geological formation was caused by erosion of the sandstone escarpment, revealing a unique set of vibrantly colored rock layers, from whites to pinks, oranges and deep crimsons.
Local legends tell a very different story from the one of natural erosion. Legend has it that the expanse of Hell’s Kitchen was once occupied by a rich family of the Wakiza clan. The family indulged in bathing in valuable milk from their cows. God, furious at their excessive behaviour, punished them by opening the ground beneath their home. The symbolically milky white and blood red sandstone of Hell’s Kitchen serves as a reminder against wastefulness and exorbitance.
Ape families can either be seen basking or swinging from one branch to another with infants cuddled on their bosoms.
Mnarani Ruins in Kilifi is a favorite attraction site for its thick baobab trees, two remnants of mosques and a number of tombs.More alluring about the place is that hundreds of people/ believers around the world travel to the site to pray and offer sacrifices to God since the tombs, mosque and baobab trees are believed to be holy.
Some of the massive baobab trees here are said to be about 800 years old. The site was first occupied in the early 14th century, but the first place of worship, the Great Mosque, was not built until around AD1425. Reconstruction of the mosque was done in the 15th century after the collapse of the earlier building.
Interestingly, the inscriptions on the tombs and the mosques here are written in Persian language, suggesting that the early settlers in Mnarani were Persians from Oman.
Mnarani ruins is located in Kilifi District, Coast province. It overlooks Kilifi creek from the southern side, some 200 meters from the Mombasa – Malindi road. The ruins consisting of two Mosques and a group of tombs. It falls within Grid Reference 936 970 on Map Sheet 198/2.
