Mkuyuni and Mwambao are among the two villages of Shimoni, Kwale county, with no access to electricity.
During the night, the villagers depend on traditional paraffin lamps and small solar-powered bulbs.
The residents have difficulties moving around as darkness limits their mobility due to fear of insecurity.
The darkness has rendered the villages and their occupants unable to move freely. They are unable to catch up with the emerging trends of technology.
The many makuti-thatched mud houses and few active business activities reveal the true devastation of the prolonged absence of electricity in the villages.
A resident, Mwanahamisi Maule, said it is now more than 60 years without avail since they started asking electricity grid connectivity. She said the residents feel like they are disconnected from the rest of the modern world.
Maule said poverty has continued to wreak havoc in their lives for lacking electricity, which is crucial for socioeconomic empowerment and growth.
"We can't do business, we are stagnant because everything nowadays requires electricity," she said, adding that women in neighbouring villages are productive and have progressed compared to them.
She said their colleagues have opened up juice parlours, among other businesses, and improved socioeconomically.
Maule said electricity remains to be their biggest dream and stands as a barrier to success, noting that children are unable to get better education because their parents have been rendered unproductive by a lack of electricity.
Nafuu Kasim said the residents always live in pain seeing other areas with electricity yet they can't have the same.
She said it is like they have been condemned to doom and the responsible authorities have turned a deaf ear to their grievances.
"We have tried every office since independence but nothing has happened. We have been abandoned," she said.
Kasim said electricity was redirected to Shimoni and their villages were left in a dilemma.
She said the residents have missed many opportunities, adding to their endless suffering.
Kasim said they solely depend on fishing and farming, but their livelihood activities are affected by the scarcity of electricity.
She said they are forced to sell the fish at a throw away price since they don't have refrigerators to store them.
Kasim said buying ice and cooler boxes is expensive and ineffective for business growth.
"Cooler boxes can only store a few fish for a specific time and getting the ice is also difficult because of distance and money," she said.
The woman said the farming has died because of poor rains and can't do irrigation since running petrol and diesel water pumps is expensive.
Hamisi Abdallah said they only get to know about electricity from neighbors.
He said their villages resemble abandoned ruins because of calmness and darkness during the night.
Abdallah said they fear for their children's health as they are forced to rely on traditional lamps for studying, adding that the lamps produce a lot of smoke affecting their health.
He said the children are unable to do their homework well which has affected their learning and academic performance, noting that due to the high cost of living, sometimes it's hard to get the fuel to light up their homes.
Abdallah said most residents go to sleep as early as 7pm because of darkness that jeopardises the areas' security.
He said the solar-powered lamps are not durable and malfunctioning by the time one finishes paying a loan contributing to losses.
Abdallah said the solars also don't function during heavy rains and cool weather.
A youth, Hamisi Mohamed Nasoro, said the lack of electricity has impeded self-employment opportunities.
He said businesses like welding, car wash, barber shops, saloons and many others are hard to conduct since electricity is pivotal to their operations.
Nasoro said the situation has left many youths in thtwo villages jobless and vulnerable to drugs and substance abuse, noting that the fishermen are counting losses every day for lacking cold storage, even as he called on the government to come to their aid.