Coast Province

Coast Province

Mkoa wa Pwani
Coast Province Mkoa wa Pwani
Province
	Location in Kenya.
	Coordinates: 3°0′S 39°30′E / 3.000°S 39.500°E
Country	Kenya
No. of Counties:	6
Capital	Mombasa
Area
• Total	79,686.1 km2 (30,767.0 sq mi)
Population (2009)
• Total	3,325,307
• Density	42/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+3 (EAT)

The Coast Province (Swahili: Mkoa wa Pwani) was one of Kenya's eight provinces. It contained all of the country's coastline on the Indian Ocean. Its capital city was Mombasa. It was inhabited by the Mijikenda and Swahili peoples, among others. The province covered an area of 79,686.1 km² .^[1]

Tourist attraction

Some of the province's important towns included Kilifi, Malindi, Watamu and Lamu in the north, and Mwandimu and Magunda in the south. Some of the coastal population was located in resort and beach settlements such as Kiongwe and Kipini.

Diani Beach was one of the province's major tourist centres, with palm trees and white sandy beaches like Mombasa.

Malindi is where Vasco da Gama picked up his pilot to navigate with the monsoon winds to India; Mambrui appears to be the site where contact occurred with the Chinese during the era of the Yongle Emperor and the expeditions of Zheng He.^[2]

Watamu is a small fishing community and contains East Africa's first marine national park, the Watamu Marine National Park.

Population data

The Coast Provinces had a population of 3,325,307 in 2009.^[1]

Climate

The climate is designated as Aw in the Köppen climate classification system.^[3]

Economy

Mining

Kwale mine

Separatism

In 1999, the Mombasa Republican Council was formed, with the goal of engineering the Coast Province's secession from Kenya.^[4]^[5]

Dissolution

In 2010, a new constitution came into effect which divided Kenya's 8 provinces into 47 counties. The Coast Province was divided into six: Mombasa, Kwale, Kilifi, Tana River, Lamu, and Taita–Taveta counties.

Villages and settlements (A-L)

Villages and settlements (M-Z)

References

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

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