The Kenyan fishing village disappearing in the sea

When Roberto Macri built his luxury hotel in the Kenyan coastal village of Kipini, it was about 100m (330ft) away from the beautiful waters of the Indian Ocean.

For nearly two decades his business thrived as tourists arrived in droves to enjoy the pristine beach and sunny weather.

The Tana Lodge Hotel, which was built on top of sand dunes, offered a spectacular view of the ocean.

But in 2014 people started to notice a change. The sea level had begun to rise and within five years, the hotel’s nine guest cottages had been swallowed by the sea – one after the other.

“The ocean changed steadily and started encroaching the hotel. The last standing cottage was gulped by the sea in 2019, marking the end of my glorious hotel,” Italian businessman Mr Macri told the BBC.

Now other residents of Kipini village, whose houses are located further back from the hotel, are facing the same prospect.

Kipini – built at the mouth of Kenya’s longest waterway, the Tana River, which flows into the Indian Ocean – is among several coastal villages that are slowly disappearing.

“The ocean advances every day and our houses are becoming weaker. We are afraid and distressed but there is nothing much we can do,” Saida Idris, a community leader, told the BBC.

She said several people had died and an unknown number were missing after being swept away by the rise in sea levels, coupled with strong winds and heavy tides, especially at night.

The depletion of mangrove forests along the shoreline – the coast’s main line of defence against erosion – is to blame.

Mangrove forests are full of salt-tolerant trees and shrubs that prevent sea water from advancing into farmlands by stabilising soil that otherwise could be washed away.

The cause of their disappearance appears to be a combination of deforestation by locals wanting coveted hard wood – and rising sea water as a result of climate change, which scientists feel is the major factor.

“The shoreline in Kipini is very exposed to the effects of strong winds that strengthen the ocean waves,” George Odera, a scientist with Fauna and Flora, a nature conservancy group, explained.

Kipini, with its welcoming palm trees and smells of spice and barbecuing seafood, evokes what every Kenyan pictures of laid-back coastal life.

But this idyll is under threat as the seawater levels continue to rise.

According to Omar Halki, a local administrator, nearly 10km (6.2 miles) of what used to be dry land have been swallowed by the sea in the last 10 years.

“It’s just a matter of time before the whole region goes under water,” he told the BBC.

Kipini has a population of about 4,000 people and residents told the BBC they could no longer dig or build strong foundations for their homes because of the rising sea levels.

Some in Kipini estimate that more than 1,000 people have relocated to other villages over the last decade.

Most of the wells or boreholes that used to give them fresh water have now turned saline, forcing them to look for alternative sources of drinking water.

The increasing salinity in groundwater has also severely affected farming.

Crabs and prawns, which have also served as a source of livelihood for locals, are now scare as their breeding grounds are within the mangrove swamps.

The rising waters have affected almost all facets of life, including how people are buried.

“Graves are shallow because if we dig the recommended six feet, the dead will be buried in water,” one resident told the BBC.

Kipini is within Tana River county, which is facing multiple climate emergencies – from severe drought and water shortages in some places to flooding in others.

It is the county’s first recorded instance of a village being overtaken by rising sea levels.

But some locals say the geography of the coast has always changed – pointing to how the small fishing community of nearby Ungwana Bay was swept away years ago.

Others say the Tana River could be changing its course.

“Our forefathers showed us where the original waterway used to pass,” resident Rishadi Badi told the BBC, explaining that he was told the river used to pass through Kipini generations ago.

But Mr Odera, who studies the calamity facing Kipini, puts the blame squarely on climate change.

“What is happening in Kipini is not history, it is a recent occurrence and the bitter truth is, it is not getting better,” he said.

Local authorities want to build a sea wall along the 72km (45-mile) coastline to save the village from further intrusion by the ocean.

Although the authorities acknowledge the situation is dire, the wall project is yet to start because of a lack of funds, says Mwanajuma Hiribae, a senior land official in the county.

“The seawater intrusion is a deeper problem affecting about 15 other villages and the county government alone cannot undertake to solve it,” she told the BBC.

Although she said the UN Environment Programme and UN Habitat had expressed support for the wall project.

Similar walls have been built at the historical sites such as Fort Jesus in Mombasa and Vasco Da Gama Pillar in Malindi after the rise in seawater threatened these tourist attractions.

But climate experts say building a wall in Kipini is a “mechanistic solution”, and there needs to be conservation initiatives, like the restoration of mangrove forests.

“The sea is not something that the government will just wake up and stop. We need to help our communities to adapt and become more resilient to these climatic changes,” Mr Odera said.

Locals say that they feel like they are temporary visitors in their own homes, walking to the shore every day to check how far the ocean has moved.

“If no help comes within three years, the entire Kipini region will be swallowed by the ocean,” Mr Halki said.

For Mr Macri, the whole situation has been devastating and he has now moved to the coastal town of Malindi town,170km (100 miles) from Kipini.

“The area was like gold – a calm village with beautiful sand dunes surrounded by coconut trees and historical buildings just next to the beach,” he said.

All that remains of his $460,000 investment is what used to be the manager’s house, standing less than 50m from the sea and awaiting its fate.

Out of the 10 acres (four hectares) on which the hotel stood on, four are fully submerged.

Mr Macri is holding on to his remaining six acres hoping to return and invest again once the ocean has been stopped from encroaching on to land.

His former managing director, Joseph Gachango, is equally bereft.

“It broke my heart to see the hotel that used to attract guests from as far as Italy wiped out with about 50 workers losing their jobs,” he said.