The Rise of Private Beach Stay Models in Malindi

After the recent deportation of politician Martha Karua from, and detention of activist Boniface Mwangi in, Tanzania; and the fierce online exchange between the two nations (that dragged in the Tanzanian Parliament) – not so many Kenyans will be feeling too welcome in Tanzania, especially as a holiday destination.

But at the recent opening of Rozzie’s Beach Villa resort in Malindi, Ambassador Paul Mukumbaya of Uganda was positively ebullient about Kenyans visiting Uganda and vice versa. “More Kenyans need to visit lake-locked Uganda and see mountain gorillas, and starting with myself, we will have our small delegation during the (October Tourism) week in Malindi, and stay over at this very beautiful Rozzie beach villa,” says Mukumbaya.

To get to Rozzie’s Beach Villa from the Malindi International Airport, one drives down the Casuarina road past silver sands, Diamonds Malindi, the Rosada Beach and Restaurant, and directly south of the top-rated Lion – in-the-Sun resort, therein lies Rozzie’s Beach Villa.

And this is the new model of private beach villa vacation, according to Dr Titus Kangani, a top advisor of tourism to the County Government of Kilifi.

Pointing to deserted bungalow (belonging to the Koinange family) next door that is so vandalised and weather-beaten that this writer at first assumed it was a historical ruin, Dr Kangani speaks of promoting the idea, to a receptive governor) Hon. Gideon Mungare of the county buying up all such beach land. “Then a few can be sold off by the county to private investors, and with the rest we do the actual beachfront; we have the shores open to the public, the way we’ve bench-marked with cities like Barcelona.”

The owners of this particular beach villa is a Dannish contractor named Henrick , and his local wife, Rozzie, who sold off a villa in Kilifi for the former to buy the Malindi land in Casuarina, and personally draw and raise RBV from the grass up.

“My husband at first was thinking of investing in Spain,” the soft-spoken Rozzie says, as her super–tall, amiable 60-year old husband beams down from the clouds, “but he eventually also saw the hidden gem that Malindi is, especially here in (the) Casuarina area.”

The Norwegian-based contractor has indeed built a splendid three-tier villa, complete with interior bar, game room and conference rooms; with pools that flow out into the exterior lounge area with its bar area and sitting area, then straight out to the Indian Ocean, with his wife Rozzie as his inspiring muse.

Complete with professional staff, this is the kind of cozy yet luxury holiday commodity that looks certain to be the future of coastal holidaying and also business, government conferencing or retreats for private enterprise, although Rozzie’s Beach Villa offers just six suites –which is the idea – as it can operate both as a day arena for those gatherings, with just the crème de la crème of the conferences staying overnight; of course for family or friends’ stays, it is perfect.

Kilifi County Executive Committee Member and Tourism Raymond Ngala said at the launch that the country had created more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs in the tourism section within two years, adding that the fantastic “subsidies and incentives we give to investors (like Henrick) have played a huge role in local job creation in the industry.”

Indeed, on the prima facie visual observation of it, Malindi does indeed seem to have come to colourful life, compared to almost three years ago now when most of the lively goings on seemed to be happening down in Watamu, the other jewel in Kilifi.

If the county can flip enough of these undeveloped lands on the frontline of the sea and get investors to build commercial beach villas, a la Rozzie’s, instead of tall high-end hotels that tend to block off the shore from common citizens, then the Casuarina coastline will certainly be the next ‘Riviera’ of the country.

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