1.
Background of Fishing community around
Lake Victoria
Fishing
is the primary economic activity of the communities on or near the Lake
Victoria. The communities are directly or indirectly involved in fishing either
as fishermen or women, processing, buying or selling fish. The life of the
Kenyan fisher folk around Lake Victoria revolves around the daily catch.
The
annual catch from the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria is estimated to rake in 7
billion shillings in terms of revenue1,
making it the third largest foreign exchange earner for the economy-having
catapulted over coffee and tea exports in terms of value.
Ironically,
the actual fisher folk continue to wallow in abject poverty and are prone to
the ravages of HIV/AIDS.
1.1
Challenges faced in the fishing
industry
In
terms of demographics, the majority of the fisher folk fall within the youth
age bracket. Every year, approximately 500,000 young people join the Kenyan
labour market- with close to 70% remaining unemployed. These statistics are
replayed in microcosm within the Lake Victoria fishing industry.
It
is estimated that Kenyan side of Lake Victoria which comprises of 6% of this
fresh water mass can realistically support only 10,000 fisher folk. In reality,
up to ten times this number are engaged directly in fishing activity- creating
enormous pressure on this scarce resource, leading to the danger of the eventual
depletion of the available fish stock on the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria.
Apart
from over fishing, the other major challenge facing the Kenyan fisher folk of
Lake Victoria has to do with the fact that the vast majority do not own their
own boats and fishing gear, but are employed by unscrupulous businessmen. To
compound this problem, the fisher folk are at the mercy of well connected
buyers (from outside the community) who dictate the whole sale price and are
able to load the daily catch in their refrigerated trucks at rock bottom, throw
away rates, only to turn around and make a killing with huge mark ups when
these buyers supply the wider Kenyan lucrative retail and export market.
One
of the negative side effects of the pressure on the fisher folk propelled by
poverty is sexual exploitation. Among the most blatant manifestations of this
malaise is the so called “jaboya system”
– a system whereby women selling fish are forced to have sex with the fishermen
just to be given the opportunity of buying from the catch. As a young fisherman
said, “For us in the fishing communities, sex is like money.” This practice of
exploiting women exacerbates the serious health crisis posed by the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
HIV
prevalence levels among the fisher folk along the shores of Lake Victoria on
the Kenyan side are high. Fishing districts in Kenya report HIV infection rate
as high as five times that of inland districts. For instance, while the
national HIV prevalence for 2006 in Kenya stood at 5.8% that in Suba area near
Lake Victoria was at 21% with a life expectancy of 37 years.4 The fact that the life of
the Kenyan fisher folk revolves around the daily catch, when the fish move,
large numbers of the community move with them re-forming a community on another
shore, or another island and even another country on the lake-whether Uganda or
Tanzania. This itinerant group of men and women are separated from their
extended families for very long periods in the year with all the dire social
and health consequences.
- Recommendations
Given
the gloomy picture painted in the preceding paragraphs, what is to be done?
We
suggest the following but should not be limited to:
●
Value
addition should start right from the lake shore. No fish should be transported
from the landing site before being processed. The bones, scales and other
wastes must be left at the landing site. These by products can be used as
spinoffs to set up a complementary cottage industry targeting tourists;
●
Cold
storage facilities to be made available at every landing site to help the
fishermen have bargaining power on their products;
●
Loans
and financial assistance to be extended to the fishers.
●
Fisher folk cooperatives societies should be
restricted to so as to prioritize the fisher folk needs and not businessmen and
middlemen who aim to impoverish the fishermen.
●
Pass
necessary legislation on fishing that should cater for both the fish and the
fisherfolk and ensure security to the fishing communities;
●
Encourage
women to initiate income generating activities to empower them so that they are
not prone to sexual exploitation;
●
Ministry
of Fishing should enforce legislation to regulate fishing, setting benchmarks
for those who want to enter the fishing industry;
●
Under
the new constitutional dispensation and in particular reference to devolved
governance, ensure that the local fishing communities retain control of their
resources and the attendant revenues and benefits;
●
Eliminate
middlemen from the chain of supply and pass on this role to cooperatives
started and managed by the fisher folk themselves;
●
Entrench
awareness raising, support and related HIV/AIDS services
fishermen on the shores of lake victoria
Boats coming in from a fishing trip
Boats at the beach
Fishermen loading their gear
Fishermen at the beach
fishermen repairing a baot
Children also waiting for the fish at the bay
