A woman enjoys a ride at the Mambrui Sand dunes. Photo by Ben Okweingoti. 
By Ben Okweingoti
The Kilifi County Government has joined the Mambrui community in Magarini Sub-County in efforts to promote sand dunes tourism and create employment opportunities for young people in the area.
The tourism venture, popularly known as “Dubai Ndogo,” was started four years ago by a group of five young people who began riding quad bikes on the sand dunes and sharing short videos of their experiences on social media.
According to Julius Kenga, chairman of the Mambrui Dubai Ndogo Community Based Organisation (CBO), the youths initially hired a single quad bike from an Italian villa owner in the area and had no idea their social media posts would eventually turn the site into a major tourist attraction.
The initiative has since grown significantly, with more than 150 young people now involved in the business. They hire quad bikes from owners and automobiles from Malindi as they cater to the growing number of visitors flocking to the site.
Kenga said the attraction initially received fewer than 100 visitors a week, but social media exposure and word-of-mouth publicity helped transform the area into a popular tourist destination.
“We started by getting less than 100 visitors every week, but our social media short videos and the few visitors we got marketed us and helped us come up with the name Dubai Ndogo, implying that the experience people fly to Dubai to enjoy was finally at home,” he said.
He said the site currently attracts at least 5,000 tourists every month, creating a source of income for hundreds of young people and other businesses in the area.
Kenga, however, appealed to the county government to support the community in acquiring its own quad bikes to meet the rising demand and reduce the costs associated with hiring the equipment.
Kilifi County Executive Committee Member for Tourism and Trade Raymond Ngala said the county government had visited the area to support the community in expanding and formalising the tourism venture.
Ngala said the county would support the CBO to register as a Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCO), enabling its members to access Wezesha Fund loans to purchase their own quad bikes and diversify their businesses.
“We are advocating for people who come to Malindi or Kilifi to visit this magnificent site and enjoy it. We have quad bikes and people who can tell the story about sand dunes, and we are going to support the community, especially the CBO, to register as a SACCO to qualify them for Wezesha Funds loans,” he said.
Ngala said the county would also develop management frameworks and policies to guide operations at the site, with particular attention to safety and security.
He added that discussions were underway on developing a broader framework to transform the sand dunes into a recognised tourism destination, including exploring the possibility of acquiring the land for public use.
“We are developing a framework on how to work with the CBOs. The critical thing is how 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.
Kilifi County Chief Officer for Tourism and Culture Herbert Mwachiro said plans were underway to open up the area and place it on the global tourism map as a unique destination.
Mwachiro described the initiative as an example of community-based tourism, saying it would give local residents a greater stake in the sector while bringing together investors and other stakeholders.
“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.
The county government said it intends to work with the community and other stakeholders to develop the site while ensuring that local youth continue to benefit from the growing tourism economy.
