Before dreaming Kizingo into reality, Nicola Armitage spent five years courting this wild place, connecting with the surrounding landscape and local village community. She studied wind and weather patterns, lunar cycles, and tides. She befriended shifting dunes and their vegetation, explored meandering mangrove swamps - all the while sustained by the daily catch of local fishermen.

Our Why

Our vision is to embrace the fundamentals of slow tourism – a local, community and culture-based ethos where the rhythms and patterns of daily life, largely free from modern world conventions, are left to unfold as they have for centuries. Local artisanal crafts, passion and love are infused in every detail of this unique and extraordinary eco-lodge. Simply put, Kizingo is itself a work of art.

We are proud of our Swahili culture and are committed to supporting and preserving the traditions and life ways that are our cultural inheritance.

Our How

Our style is simple and elegant. Traditional thatched-roof construction incorporates palm, coconut, and mangrove wood. Woven palm and coconut leaves are used for floating beds and wall coverings; shutters and doors are strung from the Wakindu tree. Hand-made furniture is produced on site and local art is featured throughout all our spaces including in our library, specially curated to feed both imagination and soul. In the bar and restaurant wooden cypress beams, lovingly carved by hand, depict the story of daily life on the island – an ancient Lamu tradition.

Our Where

Kizingo means corner in Kiswahili and that is where you can find us. Situated on the remote southwest tip of Lamu island near Kipungani village, we are a 30-minute boat ride from Manda airport. With no cars on the island, when we want to visit Shela or Lamu town we travel by boat or boda-boda (our local motorcycle taxi). Or, when we feel like stretching our legs, we walk the 13km dune-lined beach often without ever seeing another human soul.