A new tourism magical circuit is slowly emerging as one of the ultimate tourism attractions that is bringing global attention in Mamburui area of Kilifi County adding up to the already existing escapades of the Coastal town.
The mamburui sand dunes popularly called Dubai Ndogo that can loosely be translated to Small Dubai offers tourists both local, regional and international lifetime experiences due to its uniqueness.
Established four years ago by the locals through a Community Based Organization, Dubai Ndogo gives tourists an opportunity to explore the Magical Sand dunes in Quad bikes while wearing the popular Islamic attire of Arafat, Kanzu for men, or Buibui for women.
Since its establishment to date, the Community is running the place and number of tourists are rising each day.
The Community efforts is slowly bearing fruits after getting attention from the County Government of Kilifi who chose the Magical destination to celebrate the UN Tourism week to not only showcase the hidden Gem but also lift it up to promote more tourists to visit.
At the Climax of the tourism Week top County Government officials led by the Kilifi County CEC for Tourism and Trade Raymond Ngalla, Chief Officer for Tourism Promotion, Culture, and Heritage Herbert Mwachiro rode in quad bikes and explored the circuit in a colorful ride together with tourists who were visiting the area.
Ngalla while congratulating the community for coming up with the idea of the new tourism product said the County Government would support them to market the destination.
Further he said their aim is to market the area as a Unique site at the Kenyan Coast so as to attract more tourists.
He said there was one site in Mjanaheri and another site in Mamburui which have dunes and are all unique and attractive.
“We are advocating for people who come to Malindi or Kilifi to visit this magnificent site to enjoy, we have quad bikes, we have people who can tell the story about sand Dunes,” he said.
He said they will support the Community by ensuring they have a SACCO and give them loans through the Wezesha Funds kitty of the county government so as to grow and uplift their living standards.
Further he said they would ensure they come up with frameworks and policies of management to ensure proper structures are developed for operations including the issue of safety and security.
“We are developing a framework on how to work with the CBOs, the critical thing is that as you may know is that about three or four days ago the Senate Committee for Tourism and Trade was here and some of the things we discussed was how do we develop a framework so that this area becomes a tourism destination, perhaps we acquire the land so that it becomes a government place where everybody can be able to come,” he said.
On his part the Chief Officer said their plan was to open up the area and put it in the world map as a unique tourism destination.
He said the Mamburui Sand dunes was a Community Tourism initiative which will enable the community have ownership of tourism.
“This is a great area, we can see the CBO is taking the active part, and there are other investors here it’s a multi stakeholder engagement that we have here,” he said adding that the activities are keeping youth away from social evils and engage in meaningful economic generating activities.
Julius Kenga Msanzu the Chairman of Mamburui Sand Dunes thanked the Kilifi County government for choosing their destination saying it will boost tourism in the area.
He said each week there are over 500 tourists and in a good month the area gets up to 5000 guests adding that they expect the numbers to rise.
He called on the county to help them upgrade the road to tarmac or cabro as it was in bad state.
Mansur Abdulwahid a representative of Dola group of Companies thanked the Community for coming up with the initiative and promised to continue supporting them to ensure more tourism visit the destination.
He said it’s through such initiatives that keep away youth from bad behaviors and transform, their livelihoods.
