Speaking on Saturday, CS Malonza stated that there has been a myriad of harassment complaints from tourists, and the menace is promptly threatening the resurgence of tourism in the nation.

To help build a good reputation for the tourism sector, CS Malonza noted that a free Tourism Management course will be made available to beach boys in a university which will soon be launched in Kilifi.

“We want to organise our beach boys because they are looking for money but we have received complains that when tourists come they are being harassed and have even threatened to stop coming,” said CS Malonza.

“The plan we have for our beach boys is to first ensure that the university we are building here at Ronald Ngala street in Kilifi will offer free education for beach boys on Tourism management. They will be taught how to receive our tourists.”

The Tourism minister added that a beach boys’ association should be established to act as a recruitment agency for individuals and legitimize them through formal employment.

“Beach boys should also have their association and ensure that they have been employed in those associations so that they are given uniforms that will help identify them as certified beach boys,” she said.

Citing an abduction case in 2018 where an Italian aid worker Silvia Romano went missing in Kilifi, CS Malonza said that the nation cannot afford another heinous crime of the same degree.

“We do not want Watamu to be likened to Malindi because you remember we lost a tourist who was abducted and Tourism in that area collapsed,” said CS Malonza.

Ms. Romano was believed to have been taken to neighbouring Somalia after her abduction and was freed from a suspected Islamist group, al-Shabab, near Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Saturday, May 9, 2020.

According to reports, Italy’s secret service is said to have been assisted by Turkey and Somalia to secure her release.

By Fred Azelwa.