Mtwapa

Mtwapa is a town in Kilifi County, Kenya, situated 16 kilometres north of Mombasa on the Mombasa to Malindi road, close to the Mombasa Marine National Park and Reserve and to Jumba la Mtwana. It is a cosmopolitan town with a sizeable population of foreign residents, known for its nightlife and for hotels, lodges and leased apartments. Two informal settlements, Majengo and Mzambarauni, took part in the UN-HABITAT Participatory Slum Upgrading Program, run by resident committees to give every household drinking water and a toilet. Mtwapa is also an important archaeological site on the Swahili coast, first noted by Emery in the late nineteenth century and since excavated to reveal 64 houses and five mosques, with finds of pottery, iron, beads and glass from local and long-distance trade.