Rabai Mission

Johann Ludwig Krapf, a German missionary working for the Church Missionary Society, settled at Rabai in 1846 and built the first Christian church in what is now Kenya, a small building that still stands; his colleague Johannes Rebmann joined him and from here made the journeys on which he reported seeing a snow-capped mountain on the equator, the first European account of Kilimanjaro, which was disbelieved in Europe for years. Krapf also compiled the first Swahili dictionary and grammar. The mission house and church are now a museum under the National Museums of Kenya, with displays on the missionaries, early Swahili scholarship and the Mijikenda communities among whom they worked. Rabai sits in the hills above the coastal plain, in an area with sacred kaya forests nearby, and the setting is green and quiet.

What you actually see

• The 1846 church - the first Christian church building in Kenya.
• The mission house museum - displays on Krapf, Rebmann and their work.
• Early Swahili scholarship - material on the first dictionary and translations.
• The hill setting - the green country behind the coast.

When to go

Dry seasons for the roads. Weekdays are quiet. The museum keeps standard hours and can be closed on public holidays, so a call ahead is sensible for a special trip.

Honest expectations

The site is small and the displays modest; the interest is historical rather than visual. Interpretation is basic. Roads to Rabai are rough in places. An hour or two is enough, and it works best combined with a coastal trip rather than as a destination.

Nearby

Mombasa is southeast; the Mijikenda kaya forests lie in the surrounding hills.