Malindikenya.net, the portal of Italians in Kenya, reported on the African country for the 16th consecutive year through its daily articles, editorials, reports, stories and services.
The year 2023 saw events, personalities and situations that took a lucid and sometimes controversial, but always faithful, snapshot of Kenya's development and the journey of millions of Kenyans and thousands of foreigners who live and frequent it.

A year in which good and bad news alternated, which witnessed political and economic changes, the effects of international events and climate change, visits and meetings that turned the world's media spotlight on Nairobi and its surroundings, as well as awards and testimonials that once again highlighted the beauty of a unique and special country.
We also covered the events that most affected our sphere, tourism in particular, and the events related to Kenya-Italy relations. The year 2023, as sadly every year, took away from us some compatriots who had something to do with Kenya and whom we wanted to remember.
Here, in brief, are the dates and events that we wanted to bring to the attention of our readers and delve into, as well as our exclusives.

5 January: Alarm from environmental and animal welfare associations, including the International Fund for the Conservation of Wildlife (IFAW): Grevy's Zebras risk extinction. This particular species found almost exclusively in Kenya, which differs from the common one in its long limbs and thinner stripes, may disappear forever without help and continuous monitoring.

9 January: Twenty-one dead and more than 40 injured in a tragic bus accident on the border between Kenya and Uganda. A bus bound for the Kenyan capital Nairobi crashed into a heavy goods vehicle shortly after crossing the border into Uganda.
This kind of accident is often due to the excessive speed of vehicles driven by reckless drivers.

18 January: Italian Kenya mourns Mama Piera Chiodi, one of the biggest hearts of solidarity in the country. The eighty-year-old resident, originally from Bergamo, had founded the 'Asante sana' Children Centre in Mambrui, where in a short time, thanks also to the help of many Italians, she had created two dormitories, male and female, with their own facilities, a large refectory with kitchen and hallway, and above all a real primary school with 11 classes, from kindergarten upwards, and 13 teachers, completely self-financed.

21 January: A boat full of Italian and Kenyan tourists capsizes due to wind and rough seas in Watamu. There are no life jackets on board, four Kenyans die and some of the 13 Italians are saved by a miracle. This is the case of three elderly compatriots who are hospitalised.
The contribution of an Italian doctor, Franco Ghezzi from Milan, who was on the beach where the first aid was carried out, was crucial.

23 January: The young Italian kite champion Jacopo Cantini, who has lived in Watamu for years, wins for the fourth time in a row at Diani Beach the "Kenya Kite Cup", the most prestigious international kite competition in East Africa.

28 January: In a motorbike accident on the outskirts of Malindi, Giovanni Battista "John" Tofani, son of Vittorio, a pioneer of the Italians on the Kenyan coast who perished in a plane crash 40 years earlier flying between Malindi and Zanzibar, loses his life. Tofani, well known in Malindi, honorary Tsavo ranger and environmentalist, was only 49 years old

22 February: The Barracuda Resort in Watamu is completely destroyed by a fire, which broke out in an adjoining structure. Almost all of the tourists manage to save themselves, except for three Italians who suffer burns and are hospitalised in Malindi. One of the three, Michela Boldrini from Bergamo, is later transferred to Mombasa in serious condition, while her cousin Mattia Ghilardi improves and remains under observation in Malindi.

1 March: Michela, the 39-year-old burned Italian tourist, did not make it. She had been in intensive care for a week at the Aga Khan hospital in Mombasa due to burns suffered in the fire at the Italian resort Barracuda Inn in Watamu. Unfortunately, the extraordinary chain of solidarity of compatriots who donated blood for her was to no avail. Even small planes were made available to transport donors from Malindi to Mombasa.

9 March: Freddie and Sbringo's solidarity album 'Once Upon a Time There Were Italians in Kenya' not only entertained the Italians in Kenya during the winter season with numerous concerts, but also achieved the result that the two artists had set out to achieve: with part of the proceeds, Freddie and Sbringo, in their own small way, collected a month and a half's worth of daily meals for 100 needy primary school students in Langobaya.

13-16 March: The President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, is on an official visit to Kenya. In addition to meeting his counterpart William Ruto, Mattarella will visit the Luigi Broglio space centre in Malindi and a number of Italian social initiatives in Nairobi, as well as talk to compatriots living and working in Kenya, during an evening at the residence of the Italian Ambassador, Roberto Natali.
Mattarella's visit has an important political and economic significance, as important bilateral agreements will be signed and other commercial and strategic relations between the two countries are also expected to be unblocked.

21 March: the Kenyan opposition leader, Raila Odinga, announces the start of street protests against the government because of the high cost of living. The protests will be staged weekly and stop at Easter, after leaving a trail of deaths, injuries and destruction of public and private facilities.

27 March: Franco Rosso dies at 94, a pioneer of tourism, not only Italian, on the Kenyan coast, the first to bet on Diani and to bring "mass" tourism to Malindi, building the Tropical Village and later acquiring the Coconut, the Dream of Africa and building the Malindi Dream Garden.

15 April: With the arrest of the controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie, the case of the 'fasting sect' of Shakahola, inland from Malindi, breaks out. According to witnesses, after the discovery of four people who had died following the preacher's call to abstain from food 'in order to see Jesus in paradise before the end of the world', there are many more mass graves with other victims in the Shakahola forest.

26 April: After the first search operations of the Shakahola forest by the regional police, there are already 90 members of Mackenzie's sect, exhumed lifeless. The preacher is jailed on charges of mass murder.

6-7 May: The Comites successfully organises the 2023 edition of the Italian Expo at the Village Market in Nairobi.
Among the attractions, in addition to the stands of Italian producers and importers, was a cooking show in which Italian diplomats tried their hand at preparing traditional Italian dishes.

20 May: Freddie del Curatolo, journalist-writer and director of the portal of Italians in Kenya, is awarded the international literary prize "Volterrani - Narrare il mondo" at the Turin Book Fair, for his book "Nairobi" with pictures of his wife Leni. This is the motivation: "A well-deserved award for having created an unprecedented portrait of one of the world's most stimulating urban realities amidst skyscrapers and savannah without the deforming lenses of tourist conformism, with a peculiar photographic outfit curated by Leni Frau, sketching a fascinating description of an African capital with unique characteristics and a melting pot of heterogeneous and contradictory humanity that, with descriptive skill, overcomes the superficiality and stereotypes of the western gaze".

6 June: Kenyan President, William Ruto, opens the second assembly of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme UN-Habitat in Nairobi, a key appointment to set guidelines for environmental protection in the world and sign agreements between nations. Leaders from many nations attend, and it is also important that Kenya is in the international spotlight these days.

1 July: At least 55 people are killed in a terrible road accident in Londiani, northern Kenya, Kericho County. A tractor-trailer, due to brake failure, allegedly lost control, crashing into a matatu and many people on the side of the road, including street vendors.
As if that were not enough, rescue was delayed by the heavy rains that fell in the evening on the area.
This is the worst accident this year in Kenya and East Africa as a whole, where tragedies on the roads cannot be contained.

7 July: The opposition calls citizens onto the streets of Kenya's major cities for 'the mother of all protests' against the government over the high cost of living, to mark the 'Saba Saba' anniversary, one of the most notorious days of revolt by the Kenyan people during its democratic history, 7 July 1990.

25 July: After another 12 dead and more than 120 injured in the last two weeks of protests in Kenya, the government and opposition reach an agreement to begin bipartisan negotiations leading to solutions for the good of the country. The weekly protests, which were also alarming the tourism industry, are thus averted.

27 July: On the eve of the August holidays, the Kenyan entry visa site and other Kenyan government sites are 'hacked' by a self-styled South Sudanese hacker group. According to experts, the hackers are subsidised by Russia, which did not like Nairobi's pro-Ukraine stance.

5 August: After an investigation by the national television station NTV, a disturbing market for children, especially babies, is uncovered, sold in hospitals in large Kenyan cities. The prices for an infant drop as low as 150 euro, but it is the doctors who are said to be making money out of it, with hefty commissions to the newborns.

28 August: The government announces, with only 48 hours' notice, a change in the payment system for entering the country's national parks. From now on, people will only pay by accessing the ecitizen website and paying with Mpesa (citizens and residents) or credit cards (tourists). In the first few days there are long queues at the entrance to the parks and inconveniences for tourists.

16 September: Kenya is in the midst of the most serious economic crisis in its history.
The national debt is dangerously approaching the $72 billion mark and the repercussions of this huge hole are made even more dramatic by the collapse of the national currency against the dollar and other foreign currencies. The American currency, which is still indispensable for international trading and for the purchase of the raw materials the country needs, has exceeded 146 shillings to a dollar and this has primarily affected the rise in fuel prices. When you consider that, with the shilling at 113 and petrol at 190, prices were down 30% in January, the surge is frightening.

2 October: Farewell to Angelo Ferrari, one of Africa's greatest Italian journalists and reporters. He passed away after a very long illness, which did not allow him to convey in articles and books his intelligent love for Africa, through lucid and passionate analyses and stories, often experienced first-hand. "I don't know how it will end" is the testament-book, which Angelo told us about in Watamu, during a moving interview, which we did not hope would be the last.

8 October: Another Kenyan on the roof of the marathon world: 23-year-old Kelvin Kiptum set a new world record, winning the Chicago Marathon in an incredible time of 2:00:35. His mark surpassed the previous record held by the celebrated Eliud Kipchoge.  Kiptum is thus the first marathon runner ever to go under 2 hours 1 minute.

10 October: The historic Italian doctor in Kenya Adriano Landra leaves us. A surgeon and general practitioner for many compatriots for over 50 years, he was also the first Italian to climb Mount Kenya after the legendary ascent by Benuzzi and Balletto, the Italian prisoners who escaped from a British detention camp and performed the feat, planting the tricolour and then returning to captivity.

23 October: The rains brought by the predicted El Niño cyclone intensify throughout Kenya, with the risk of flooding and danger for thousands of Kenyans, especially in the poorer and coastal regions in the areas of the great rivers, Tana and Galana.

26 October: Magalì Manconi, a friend of many Kenyans and in Kenya for over 30 years, especially in the hospitality sector, as well as the life and safari companion of the great naturalist photographer Paolo Torchio, passes away after a short and merciless illness.

30 October - 4 November: The eyes of the world are on Kenya for the historic visit of King Charles III of England, the sovereign's first overseas visit. In Kenya, there are many issues left unresolved after the colonial era, including the demand for an apology and reparations from local communities for the abuses and atrocities perpetrated by the British army. Charles, after meeting with President Ruto, publicly apologises.

10 November: The rains intensify and a flood emergency is triggered, with the Red Cross counting 154 victims and over 560 Kenyans displaced and homeless. It is the biggest flood-related tragedy in over 30 years in the country.

12-19 November: With initiatives in Nairobi, Mombasa and coastal tourist destinations, the Italian Embassy in Kenya launches the "Settimana della Cucina Italiana nel mondo" (Italian Cuisine Week in the World). Events include master classes for local chefs and promotion of Italian products, as well as conferences organised by the Italian Cultural Institute.

6 December: The government announced price increases for tourist visas, renewals and work and residence permits for foreign residents. The Kenyan High Court suspends the new regulations regarding increases affecting Kenyan citizens.

12 December: During celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of Kenya's Independence, President William Ruto announces the abolition of online visas for entry into Kenya and announces their replacement by the 'ETA' application, which will still cost around 30 euro, from 1 January 2024.

22 December: In a terrible road accident near Kilifi, tourist Antonella Vismara, wife of former judo champion Alfredo, who had set up a judo school in Malindi, taking several local athletes to high levels, lost her life. Antonella was 79 years old and was well known and well liked in Malindi.

25 December: The entry into force of the electronic 'ETA' authorisation is official, which will replace the online visa to enter Kenya from 27 December. In any case, those who have already made and paid for a visa for the first few months of 2024 will be able to use it without also having to do the ETA.