By James Macharia
Lamu, Kenya - Hotel owners on Kenya's Indian Ocean resort of Lamu say its beaches should be swarming with sun-lovers and tourists strolling its centuries-old alleys, but an unwanted link to al-Qaeda has hurt its appeal.
Lamu's chain of exotic islands came up on investigators' radar last year when Kenya, Israel and the United States focused their hunt for suspected al Qaeda terror mastermind Fazul Abdullah Mohammed on one of its tiny islands.
Fazul, a citizen of Comoros, is the man blamed by police in the three countries for deadly bombings in east Africa. Kenyan police say he may now be hiding in Somalia after blowing up an Israeli-owned hotel near Kenya's main coastal resort of Mombasa in 2002.
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| 'Image is everything and there has been a negative image among foreigners' |
The repercussions of the bombings were felt as far away as Lamu, 300km north of Mombasa - far removed from Kenya's mass market tourist circuit of beaches and wild game parks.
Images of US marines in combat gear on patrol on the Lamu islands, and suspicions among Kenyan police that other militants may have been based there, have spooked tourists.
"For tourism, image is everything and there has been a negative image among foreigners. Kenya has become a victim of the terror war," said German Joe Brunlehner, managing director of Romantic Hotels, which owns resorts along Kenya's coast.
Brunlehner, a consultant who has helped develop resorts worldwide, said that of about 130 hotels and guest houses in Lamu, roughly 60 were running and most were barely breaking even.
"Tourists are simply not here any more," said Ali Bwana, who runs the Lady Nur speedboat across the Lamu archipelago.
"I now earn only a third of what I used to before all these stories of the search for terrorists in Lamu started."
Kenya's tourist arrival figures show a sharp drop in 2003 compared to previous years, and even tiny Lamu, which has a bed capacity of only about 500 tourists - equal to a single tourist hotel in Mombasa - is finding it hard to reach its potential.
"If Lamu gets just one percent of Kenya's tourist arrivals, we would flourish," said Alwiy Shariff, who heads a group of Lamu tour operators who stage an annual cultural festival.
Part of Lamu's allure is its history and Swahili culture - Muslim women are covered by black buibui veils revealing only their tattooed hands and feet as they walk along its waterfront facade of old whitewashed buildings.
The metre-wide alleys of the town lead to ornately carved wooden doors, an unchanged throwback to an ancient past.
Lamu has a unique laid-back walking pace - be it by donkey or people as it has no cars.
"Lamu is a perfect getaway. So if you see marines walking around, or whizzing in their choppers and speedboats searching for terrorists you can't stay," said Maureen, a Lamu hotelier.
Ali Bunu, another hotel owner, said only 17 percent of his hotel was occupied after hitting rock-bottom for most of last year when the search for Fazul zeroed in on Lamu in early 2003.
Hopes of a recovery for tourism, Kenya's second biggest foreign exchange earner, worth about $338 million in 2002, faded last year after travel warnings against visiting the country were issued by the United States, Britain and Australia.
Of the three, only Washington maintains the warning.
"Lamu was favoured by backpackers, especially from Australia, in the past. But now very few come because of the travel warnings," said tour guide Haj Nasir.
Kenya has worked hard to rescue its image after political violence in 1997, the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi in 1998, the global effects of the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 and the hotel attack near Mombasa.
Tour operators in the sector, which employs 500 000 people directly in Kenya, say they have lost millions of dollars as visitors stay away, fearing more attacks.
"Nowadays with terrorists, one is never safe anywhere, but we have intensified security," said James Mwaura, Kenya's top government official in Lamu, adding that about 65 percent of business activity on the islands was tourism-related.
Kenyan tour operators are urging the US to lift the alert.
Despite the warnings, some tourists are trickling back.
"We didn't think they were a great concern, and were enjoying it here," said Norm Harlow, 73, and his wife from San Diego, California.
"Since the September 11 attack in New York, anything can happen anywhere, but we can't stay at home because of fear."
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