Flames broke out in Watamu, on the beach at Jacaranda Bay, in the early afternoon of today, Monday 19 July.
The Italian-owned boutique hotel Alawi, a jewel of a hotel by the sea, burned down.
Due to the strong wind blowing in from the sea, the Alawi burnt down within minutes. According to witnesses, a blaze probably coming from the kitchen attacked the makuti and in a few minutes the structure began to burn with no possibility of stopping the fire with fire extinguishers, which were promptly activated by the staff.
The fire then spread to the structure behind, another bed & breakfast, the "Pole Pole", and fortunately proceeded inwards and not to the side where it could have done much more damage. As is often the case, there was also an immediate outbreak of raids by locals who probably slipped into the structure as the flames engulfed it. The area, for which an asphalt road is being paved and is nearing completion, is not easily accessible to firefighters and police arrived on the scene as soon as possible. More updates later from malindikenya.net

UPDATES:

From the words of the facility's manager, on our Facebook social space, the origin of the fire is yet to be verified, so it is not certain that the flames started in the kitchen. Similarly, we are told that there was no theft. So much the better, in this disgraceful situation the looting (a phenomenon that is not only Kenyan) is a further moral and economic blow.