Malindi District was a former

administrative district Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

in the

Coast Province The Coast Province () was one of Kenya's eight provinces prior to 2010. It covered the entire country's coastline on the Indian Ocean. Its capital city was Mombasa. It was inhabited by the Mijikenda and Swahili peoples, among others. The provin ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. Its

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

was the coastal town of

Malindi Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Sabaki River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi was 119,859 as of the 2019 census. It is the largest urban centr ...

. When it was merged with Kilifi district to form Kilifi County in 2010, the district had a population of 544,30

Malindi Town is increasingly becoming known as Kenya’s "Little

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

". Italians own more than 2,500 properties, and the number of Italian residents in Malindi town and its environs, estimated at over 3,000, is the largest

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an population compared to other European populations elsewhere in the country.

Overview

The Italian embassy is the only foreign mission with a resident consul in Malindi to aid its population. In the preelections held in November 2007 for the Kenyan general election, 2007 Mr. Amason Jeffah Kingi, an Advocate of the High Court, was elected as a Member of Parliament for the Magarini Parliamentary constituency and Mr. Gideon Mung'aro, the former Mayor of Malindi, was elected as a member of Parliament for the Malindi constituency. Mr. Amason Kingi was consequently appointed to the cabinet where he served as the Minister for East African Community.

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

is a major industry while inland areas are rural.

Subdivision

Villages of

Watamu Watamu is a small town located approximately 105 km north of Mombasa and about 15 km south of Malindi on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It lies on a small headland, between the Blue Lagoon and Watamu Bay. Its main economic activities ...

and

Gedi Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI, pronounced ) is a NASA mission to measure how deforestation has contributed to atmospheric CO2 concentrations.