22 Jan2026
In my previous article I’ve already written a lot about some unprofessional companies in Watamu Kenya and the bad experience I had with them. Unfortunately, there were more. I’ll describe in detail in this article.
Frankly, I still cannot believe how many negative things happened when I was in Kenya. Out of over 60 countries I’ve visited, I’ve never ever had so many bad things happen to me in all the other places. Only Kenya. Yes, one or two challenges can happen, but what was going on in Watamu Kenya felt like a nightmare at times.
Unfair.
Unexpected.
Unprofessional.
And even unsafe.
I spent 2 months in Watamu, Kenya from mid-September to mid-November 2024 alone.
I am speaking up about all of this on my blog hoping it will help some of you to avoid the same situations, companies, experiences. I already went through hell, you don’t need to.
My intention is NOT to hurt people and brands I mention in this post. It is to open their eyes to see the consequences of their attitude. To show them they can choose to behave in a better way next time.
unprofessional companies in Watamu Kenya -on a boat trip with Jamal Michelino
Watamu Kenya – bad experiences
Jamal Michelino tours
Once I realized that Jonathan (mentioned in my previous article) was not going to keep his word about taking me on the rest of the tours we had previously agreed on, I posted an Instagram story looking for a local tour guide/agency interested in collaboration. I clearly stated in the IG story which tours I was interested in.
And Jamal Michelino reacted to that story so we started talking. His English was worse than basic but we agreed on him coming to meet me at the hotel the following day. He came 10 minutes late and with 2 other guys who work for him – Dante and Giovanni (they are Kenyans but gave themselves Italian names because many tourists visiting Kenya come from Italy). But at least their English was fine.
All the 3 of them were smoking in front of me without even asking me if it was ok (to me, a life long non-smoker, it’s truly disgusting) and they somehow seemed high. Or beyond exhausted. It was not very clear to me. But is it professional to have a very first meeting about a collaboration like this?
Anyway, we agreed on our collab details: them taking me on the 3 tours I really wanted to go on (the same as Jonathan never took me on), plus a day boat trip on top. The boat trip was actually their idea. All of the 4 tours for free for me so I could promote them on IG and FB in exchange for that – the usual barter collab.
And on top of that, I could also join their 2-day group safari tour to Tsavo East NP just paying for the hotel room and NP entrance fee which, they told me, was $90 altogether. They would not be earning any money for me joining the safari tour. At first I didn’t like that deal because that is not a collab at all but then I said yes.
The boat trip came first. Dante picked me up at the hotel a few minutes late and then he drove like crazy to the port (on the motorbike without helmet) – not safe. Then both him and Giovanni didn’t pay much attention to me and other tour guests at lunch time. They were just far from us smoking while a tour guide from a different agency was helping us with our meals and drinks. I heard the other guests speaking about it and complaining among themselves, too.
And then Dante was speeding up on the motorbike again when taking me back to my hotel. Not thinking about my safety. And he was even smoking on the bike with the smoke going into my face. No, he had not asked me if he could smoke next to me. The rest of the boat trip was fine but these things? Not really.
unprofessional companies in Watamu Kenya – boat trip with Jamal Michelino
The following morning Dante picked me up for the safari tour. Another man appeared then next to the jeep saying he is the owner of the tour agency and that Jamal only works for him getting the clients. He was requesting $110 from me, instead of $90 we’d agreed on with the guys. First of all, I only had $100 cash there with me, and second, you don’t just come and say “pay me more” after you’d already agreed on the exact amount of money – which was less.
A deal is a deal. Keeping your word is the professional behavior, in my opinion.
But Dante, Giovanni and that guy/owner were all shouting at me in a rude way to pay more or to leave, while Jamal was smoking a metre from us without saying a word. In the end the owner took $100 from me saying that it was fine and I could join the safari tour.
But for me it was about the principle. I had to pay $10 more than agreed, and they even wanted $20 more at first. Not cool. To be honest, looking back now, I don’t really know why I didn’t leave instead. Maybe it was my strong love for animals and a big desire to see them in the wild the very same day that made me go on the safari tour even when their attitude was far from ok.
Then during the tour, Jamal also smoked in the jeep sitting in front of me with all the smoke going directly into my face. I had to ask him and other tourists not to smoke in the jeep right next to me. And if not for the jeep driver, I would have not get any information from Jamal in English about anything, animals we saw, our tour program etc. Jamal just didn’t speak to me at all. If he said something, it was in Italian to the Italian group of guests with me in the jeep. I understand just very basic Italian.
We had an early pick up at sunrise the following morning. The jeep driver had to call Jamal twice for him to come. When Jamal finally arrived 45 minutes late, he did not even say sorry to us, the clients. And he still looked drunk or stoned (or both?) Because of Jamal coming late, me and other tourists lost our chance of spotting lions and leopards which are usually active and easier to spot in that area very early morning. Thank you very much! I was so angry with Jamal after that.
What about the remaining 3 tours we had agreed on?
The next month I texted Jamal on IG several times asking him when we were going to go. Or he didn’t reply, or he just kept telling me ”tomorrow” but then never got back to me to arrange the tours. Jamal never took me on the remaining 3 tours he was supposed to. I kept waiting and waiting, furious.
After all the problems, I would truly never recommend going on any tour with Jamal Michelino while in Kenya. Extremely unreliable, late, no respect towards clients, not caring, not keeping his word, smoking into your face even when you’re a strict non-smoker… Do I even need to go on?
unprofessional companies in Watamu Kenya – safari with Jamal Michelino
Tamalaki clothes
We agreed on a basic collaboration with Tamalaki. The owner Britany wanted to send me some of their clothes to share photos wearing them on my social media tagging their company. At first, she wanted to send me several outfits for me to take photos in and then I could keep one of them. I was shocked that she even suggested that.
How can she require someone to take their time taking photos just like that? And trust me, it can take a long time to get a good shot of myself when I’m alone without any photographer. And then she even wanted me to share the photos on my social media promoting her brand? It took me years to get the followers I have now!
Expecting all that for free?
Without paying me anything for my work and my time?
And without giving me the clothes I was supposed to promote, as the bare minimum?
Simply put, Britany wanted to use me.
I clearly told her not just once but twice that I’d only do the online promotion of their outfits that she would let me keep. It’s obvious. I really thought she understood it after my 2 very clear messages.
Then she sent me a pack with 4 outfits. Straight on the same day I shared photos in one of them. Then a few days later I shared photos in another outfit. But when taking those photos, I fell down, got injured and had to take a break to heal.
A few days later Britany from Tamalaki just sent me a message to keep 1 outfit and take the other 3 to their shop on the very same day. It was Sunday afternoon, just saying, but she required me to go to the other side of town just like that and paying my own money for the transportation to get there. She didn’t even ask me if I could go on that day, she just ordered me to go. And she told me that if I wanted to keep the 2nd outfit, I needed to pay for it. Yeah, the very same outfit I’d promoted already.
Based on our previous agreement I was supposed to keep all the outfits I promoted.
So she wanted to get my online promotion and my followers, and even make me pay for the outfit at the same time. Excuse me?! Seriously, so unprofessional, so not cool to use me like that behaving it was ok. I replied to her that me paying and promoting at the same time was not the deal we had… to which she never replied.
So I just took the 3 outfits to their shop the very same afternoon (she was not there personally). After that I noticed she unfollowed me on Instagram.
And just to add, 3 outfits didn’t have the Tamalaki company label on while the other one did (unconsistent, weird), and some were even badly sewed, not in a straight line and with threads coming out all around. Not a good quality for the high price they cost. Such a shame.
unprofessional companies in Watamu Kenya – 1 of many injuries I got
Tembea Watamu Africa tours
When I saw that Jamal (mentioned above) was just full of promises but not keeping them, I online chatted to another local tour guy Philipp who owns Tembea tour agency. He has loads of IG followers and his English is great so I thought he had to be responsible and good at tour guiding, too.
He even seemed more than interested in our collaboration. But then the same situation repeated itself. Each time I asked Tembea to tell me when we would go on a tour, he would always say he’d send the information “tomorrow” but then he never did.
The same thing happened several times.
And once he also said he didn’t reply to my messages for days because he was drunk. Hm…
Guess what? Tembea never kept his word. He took me on NO tours. Zero. And he didn’t even tell me he would not do it.
unprofessional companies in Watamu Kenya – Watamu Garoda beach
Watamu Beach Cottages
Honestly, I did like many things during my stay at Watamu Beach Cottages. But there were also a few which felt simply off.
I was staying at a tent hut there and my food was in the fridge in the shared kitchen. One day when I was going from the beach to my tent to grab something, I saw a cleaning lady cleaning the kitchen.
Then when I got back from the beach again later on, all my food and some expensive natural oils I had in the shared fridge were gone. I knew it was the cleaning lady because there were no other people at the other 2 tents at that time. I told about it to Benjamin (the hotel staff) and another cleaning lady that passed by.
When I was looking for my food in the kitchen, other guests came (a very kind couple) and they told me they saw some full fruit & veggies in the trash bin. I checked and some of my whole cucumbers were there sticking out from under other rubbish.
The weirdest thing was that Benjamin kept telling me always something different. First, that the cleaning lady put my things in their staff fridge while cleaning our fridge. Then they gave me my things back (except for the coconut oil which disappeared who knows where) but the things were clearly taken out from the rubbish bin as they were covered with small rubbish traces all over.
Disgusting! I am not a cow to eat food from the rubbish bin.
So I told Benjamin about it and he kept giving me different answers each time I tried to make him solve the situation. From not doing anything about it, to saying they’d give me money for the food so I could go to town and buy it myself again, to them buying me the food but not knowing what it was (I told him exactly the very first day which food was missing), to saying the cleaning lady didn’t put it into the trash bin so she didn’t take it out from there then…
And I was even told that the cleaning lady did not have money to buy me new food etc… One excuse after another.
Then Benjamin stopped talking to me whatsoever, no more replying to my WhatsApp messages, not even saying hi to me in person at the hotel, and he even shouted at me several times. I was shocked! Yes, one of the main hotel staff members treating a hotel guest (me) this way. For the mistake they made.
And I even had a collaboration with the hotel at that time which Benja knew about. How was I supposed to say only nice things about the hotel if I was treated like that?
In the end, Benjamin said that I should talk to the hotel accountant Ken about it (and waste more of my time explaining the whole situation to him AGAIN) because he wanted to stay away from it. It took me seriously several days and my food was still not replaced.
It was clearly not just about the food or my money for the food itself (although that’s important, too), but about how they treat the hotel guests if hotel staff makes a mistake.
In the end, I sent a message about the whole situation to the British hotel owner.
At first, I got the impression that he didn’t seem to care either. Then after my explanation he did send someone to buy me the very same food that I lost because of the cleaning lady’s mistake.
Shame I had to waste so much time, energy and loads of my good mood having to deal with something like this.
It would have been professional to not even take guests’ food in the first place, but in case it happened, or the hotel staff member who made the mistake should resolve the situation straight away or hotel management should give several options to the hotel guest asking what the best solution would be to make the guest happy. In a good hotel they might even offer a meal at their restaurant to the hotel guest instead or anything else to make up for the trouble caused.
It should be the hotel staff coming up with problem solutions. Not the hotel guest (me).
That would be a professional way of dealing with this kind of situation. Not the silly & rude excuses I was getting from Benjamin for several days in a row. That’s really not what hotel guests want to go through during their stay. Food for thought for other hotels, too. It’s about the customer service.
Unfortunately, generally speaking, customer service in Kenya is still far from ”good enough”.
Then Ken, the hotel accountant, was rude to me a few times in the second half of my stay. But I think no more details are necessary. I hope they will improve the guest service at Watamu Beach Cottages because it’s a lovely place, otherwise.
unprofessional companies in Watamu Kenya – Watamu Beach Cottages tent hut
Vic from Fit like Vic gym
This one is more personal, not professional.
At first, I liked Vic for his personality. We had nice meaningful online conversations (unlikely to many other Kenyans, Vic’s English is perfect and he seemed intelligent). And after all the challenges I was facing in Watamu, Vic felt like the 1st person I could actually really trust and talk to.
As I was in Kenya alone, it was very important to me to finally have a local to trust.
I’m not sure if I was charmed by Vic’s smile or charisma, or so desperate due to the bad situations in Watamu but my intuition turned out to be really wrong about him.
Long story short… Victor Shioni, the owner of the gym Fit like Vic in Watamu might be the biggest liar I’ve ever met. He told me so many lies in a month we knew each other, didn’t keep his word a lot of times, hurt me in many different ways over and over (thankfully not physically) even after I kept explaining to him how bad his attitude was.
Vic came to my hotel to see me several times. I never went anywhere to see him! Not even once! It was Vic who always started with hugs and kisses even after I told him that all I wanted for us was to be friends.
He kept trying anyway.
He clearly told me more times he wanted to have s€x with me but I always refused him so then he did something to hurt me again (emotionally, mentally). And not just once. Similar situation happened a couple of times during my second month in Watamu.
Yes, I admit. I did make a huge mistake when I kept giving him always yet another chance to show me he’s a good human being and we could be friends after all. I just really needed someone in town to trust and talk to when going through all the other bad situations in Watamu. I needed mental support from someone who knew the area.
And deep down, I do believe that people can learn from their mistakes and change.
In the beginning, I had no idea Vic was in a relationship. Despite of that, I did not want to have anything s€xual with him anyway. As a vegan, non-drinker and a relationship person myself, I want to be only with a man who shares the same lifestyle and values. I could not be with Vic, not even if he was single. I don’t care about flings.
Once I found out Vic was in a relationship, I actually asked him several times if he wanted to tell me something. He did not even mention it at all and kept pretending he had no idea what I was talking about.
Physically, Vic might look perfect and he’s very charming and smiling all the time. Yes, that is true!
But does a nice person with a good character look for s€x elsewhere while they are in a relationship with someone else?
Does a good person keep hurting others even after they have been told it’s painful and disappointing?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Vic was doing the same he did with me also with other female tourists. He’s using his charm to play with women’s life, body, emotions & heart. But isn’t his careless selfish inhuman attitude more important than his muscles and smile?
Please, don’t be as naive as I was, don’t fall into his trap. Learn from my experience instead.
Vic is NOT a man of his word.
If he doesn’t care about hurting other people… Does he deserve your time or money for a gym session or a guesthouse stay?!
And yes I know that Vic’s attitude seems pretty normal to many people (unfortunately there’s way too many liars, cheaters and people who play with others and don’t care about the consequences). But just because some people do something, it does NOT mean it’s right.
My personal approach is based on treating others in a human way and with 100% honesty at all times.
I don’t support cheating and lying, never have and never will.
And the worst thing? Vic got married to his woman just a few days after I publicly shared on IG and YouTube what he tried to do with me. They even threatened me on IG for online sharing my experience with him. Instead of Vic apologizing to me. Him getting married just straight after he tried to sleep with me says it all about his character…
unprofessional companies in Watamu Kenya – beach outside of Watamu Beach Cottages
Chai adventures tour guide
I was physically attacked on the beach by a 25-year old local tour guide Chai who took me on 3 tours a few days before that (he was 15 years younger than me).
As part of our collaboration I promoted his tours as he seemed reliable and nice in the beginning and was on time (which is a rare thing for Kenyans). For that reason I overpromoted the first local tours he took me on.
Then he started flirting with me, saying he’d join me on the beach in the morning and telling me what I had to do and when (organizing my free time, hello?!) However, I clearly told him NO a couple of times and I said that after seeing his attitude I didn’t want to go on the last tour with him as initially planned. I did not want to promote his tours nor see him any more after all that.
The following afternoon, on the 1st November 2024, Chai was waiting for me on the beach outside of Watamu Beach Cottages hotel. When I saw him there when I went for a walk, I thought he wanted to apologize. But he came to me instead, squeezed my arm so much that my 100 eur watch partly broke and then he seemed like he was about to slap me but I managed to step back.
In the meantime he was shouting at me that “you’re a bad person, you’re a b*tch, b*tch”. I turned and started to walk away but he kept shouting “you b*tch”. Locals around us were all looking at me, and I was trembling and with eyes watering. No one came to ask me if I was ok.
A few hours later, until I managed to calm down and post an IG story about it, he unfollowed me and blocked me on Instagram. So guys if you are ever in Watamu, please never trust and never go on tours with Chai (at that time his IG was @chai_adventures99).
BTW Chai and Vic are friends. Not much else has to be said…
with Chai adventures Watamu
unprofessional companies in Watamu Kenya – Chai adventures Watamu leaflet
Who to avoid in Watamu Kenya
Writing this blog post and having to remember all those bad experiences in Watamu Kenya was not easy for me. But I will always stand for honesty and truth. I hope my articles will help some people to avoid the companies who do not behave in a professional and human way as they should.
People, please, always speak up when things go really wrong. When you are not treated the way you should be. When the companies take money from you but then do not provide what you paid for. When you agree on something but then they do not keep the word. Only thanks to real reviews like this others do not have to have the same problems with the same people.
After I was treated badly by them, these are the unprofessional companies in Watamu Kenya I do not trust any more and you should avoid, too:
Jamal Michelino, Tamalaki, Tembea, FitLikeVic, Chai adventures, AfricaNomads, Casa Corra, Jonathan from Kinglee Safaris, Giorgio from Watamu dreams and Rafiki village.
It took me several days to write this post. So hopefully you will learn something good from all that I had to go through.
