Coast Province


The Coast Province of Kenya, along the Indian Ocean, was one of Kenya's eight provinces. It comprises the Indian Ocean coastal strip with the capital city at Mombasa and was inhabited by the Mijikenda and Swahili, among others. The province covered an area of 79,686.1 km² and would have had a population of 3,325,307 in 2009.

Tourist attraction

Other important towns on the coastal strip include Diani in the South, and Kilifi, Malindi, Watamu and Lamu in the North. Part of the coastal population is located in resort and beach settlements as Kiongwe and Kipini.
Diani Beach is now also a tourist center, with palm trees and the white sandy beaches like Mombasa.
Malindi is where Vasco da Gama picked up his pilot to navigate with the monsoon winds to India; Mambrui appears to be the site where contact occurred with the Chinese during the era of the Yongle Emperor and the expeditions of Zheng He.
Watamu is a small fishing community and East Africa's first Marine National Park.
Mwandimu and Magunda are settlements in the south of the province.

Population data

CodeCountyFormer ProvinceArea Population
Census 2009		Capital
1MombasaCoast212.5939,370Mombasa
2KwaleCoast8,270.3649,931Kwale
3KilifiCoast12,245.91,109,735Kilifi
4Tana RiverCoast35,375.8240,075Hola
5LamuCoast6,497.7101,539Lamu
6Taita-TavetaCoast17,083.9284,657Voi
Totals79,686.13,325,307-

Climate

The climate is tropical humid.

Separatism

Since 2012, an organisation calling itself the Mombasa Republican Council had been active to secede the province from the rest of Kenya.

Villages and settlements (A-L)