Wasini Island

Wasini Island lies in southeast Kenya 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) off the coast of the Indian Ocean, 75 kilometres (47 mi) south of Mombasa, and 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) opposite the harbour of the village Shimoni. It is approximately 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) long and 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) across. The island has only footpaths of sharp old coral or sand. There are no autocars, carts or bicycles. Cargo is transported by foot or by a wheelbarrow with a solid tyre. Transport is over the paths, or via the beaches, mainly consisting of coral and only passable with low tide, or by boat over the sea. Before 1963, in the British colonial time, there was an airstrip in the lagoon situated longitudinal south on the island; only small parts of tarmac are reminders of this history.

The island has a population of about 3.000 living at the north coast in the two villages Wasini and Mwkiro, respectively at the west and east side of the island, and inland in the hamlet Nyuma Maji, which means in Swahili 'behind the water'. In Wasini-village and Nyuma Maji live the Bantu people the Vumba, whose mother tongue is the Swahili dialect kivumba; in Mwkiro the Digo have their own mother tongue, the Swahili dialect kidigo. Besides that they all speak Swahili and sometimes English. The Vumba are of Arabic origin, may be a little bit mixed with the Chinese. The Arabs came to the East-African coast in the 1st century A.D. and after mixing with the Bantu people they together formed the Coast or Swahili people. The Digo probably came from the Persian Gulf in the 15th century A,D. Between the island and the Tanzanian islands Pemba and Zanzibar south-east of the island in the Indian Ocean consist strong cultural connections and family ties. The population is for about 99% Muslim, from liberal to orthodox. (See note 1).

Tourism is the main source of income; second comes fishing. The high poverty level has greatly diminished in the last 30 years due to the tourism based on the approximately 10 km far Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park. Here tourists do snorkel and dive between the coral around this tiny sand island Kisite which is totally inundated during high tide. This park annually attracted 80.000 of overseas (75%) and African (25%) tourists. Unfortunately, since 2013 there is a decline of 50% in the number of overseas tourists, of which 75% are coming from Europe, because of their fear for Al-Shabaab and since 2014 also for the Ebola virus, although this virus was never detected outside West- Africa and Congo. In Wasini village approximately 50% of the costwinners are relying for their income on tourism, so 75% of the population. In mwiro this percentage are 12%, and probably, 18% respectivily.

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