Kisumu is set to host the 2016 Kavirondo Fish Festival aimed at promoting the fish culture in the Lake Victoria basin.
The festival dubbed ‘Easter Edition’ will be held on March 26 and 27, 2016 at Dunga Beach Management Unit by Kisumu Central Business District Association (KCBDA) in collaboration with the County Government of Kisumu with support from the IOC-SmartFish program.
The Festival aims to bring all Kenyans and the rest of the world to the City of Kisumu during the Easter holiday to interact with the fisher folk communities along the Kavirondo Gulf and to enjoy the various traditional fish meals and cuisines.
Themed ‘Eating Fish Is Good Life', the festival will be used to advocate for the protection and promotion of sustainable Fishery Value Chain Processes and to popularise the various traditional fish meals as a healthy food among the young generation and the modern society.
According to Kavirodnfo Fish Festival Committee and CEO KCBDA Samba Nixon, the organisers will provide free samples of rare fish delicacies for tasting at the start of the festival before the participants are given an opportunity to have a whole dish to buy the delicacies.
“We will also provide opportunities for exhibition of fish, fishery and fishing products where the fish industry players will exhibit all the products that support the sector,” said Samba.
He added: “Lake Victoria is rich in varieties of fish hence the participants to be ready to see some of the fish species that inhabited the Lake Victoria over 150,000 years ago. Those that they have never seen in their entire life such as a Nile Perch (Lates niloticus or Mbuta in Luo) bigger than two adults combined.”
The festival will be capped with fish cooking and preparation competitions and fish eating competition as well as inter-County boat racing competition involving Busia, Homa Bay, Migori, Kisumu and Siaya Counties.