- The Maulid Festival is marked annually by a section of Muslims in remembrance of the birth of Prophet Muhammed in the holy city of Mecca in 570AD.
- Hotels are fully booked and guests are still struggling to find a place to lodge.
Hoteliers, boat operators, tour guides and hawkers are reaping big from the Lamu Maulid festival.
The festival started on Wednesday and will end on Friday this week.
This is the 132nd edition of the Maulid festival. It is taking place at the Lamu Old Town, a Unesco World Heritage site.
The Maulid Festival is marked annually by a section of Muslims in remembrance of the birth of Prophet Muhammed in the holy city of Mecca in 570AD. Hotels are fully booked and guests are still struggling to find a place to lodge.
Simba Mkala, who owns guest houses in the town, said for the first time all the rooms are filled. “We didn’t expect the number of people would be this high. I have had to turn people away every few minutes. Other hotels here are equally full,” he said.
Business is also booming for those in the transport sector – road and water. Bus operators have had to increase the number of buses plying the main Lamu-Garsen road since the week started to cater for the high number of travellers coming into Lamu by road for the Maulid festival.
Boat operators are making a killing as people from all the far-flung islands in the archipelago like Faza, Pate, Kizingitini, Kipungani, Matondoni, Siyu, Ndau and others travel into Lamu for the festival.
Boat operators say they are now making at least five trips to and from the various jetties on the islands, unlike normal days when one barely makes a good sum from a single trip.
“The demand for boats has definitely gone up 10-fold. People are coming and going every second and that’s how we are making the fortune of a lifetime. We are making good use of this festival because we know it’s not a fortune that come daily,” Athman Musa said.
Organisers of the Maulid festival said they expected more than 10,000 people in Lamu for the festival.