Five counties bordering Lake Victoria are drafting a legislation to monitor fishing activities on the lake.
Kisumu, Siaya, Homabay, Busia and Migori counties are expected to meet stakeholders, beach management units, fish processors and exporters, fishermen and fish farmers for validation of the draft which is in its final stages before it heads to County Assemblies in November.
Lake Victoria Riparian Counties Fisheries Committee says the regulatory bill will unify the counties in the fight against rising number of illegal fishing gears and methods that have resulted in dwindling fish population on the lake.
The chairman of the committee Dr Stephen Orot said the move was informed by the need to have a common script from which policies would be enforced given the common problems facing them.
“Lake Victoria is a resource like any other and must be exploited sustainably. The challenges to sustainable use of the fisheries are the same across the five riparian counties and that is why we decided to come together to have uniform policies,” he said.
Orot added that the challenges which range from fishing in breeding zones, harvesting juvenile fish and use of illegal gears and methods have been mainly caused by lack of understanding of the policies by stakeholders
“We are incorporating everyone in the fisheries value chain to ensure the policies are understood and accepted before rolling out,” he said.
The draft, he further stated, will undergo minimal customisations in the respective counties before being tabled in the Assemblies to cater for differences that stakeholders in the counties have including number of fishermen and the fish species and population found there.
The bill also seeks to empower beach management units, which work closely with the fishermen, to help the counties in overseeing the enforcement of the new rules.
The draft comes at a time when reports by Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute (Kmfri) have alerted that the lake is in danger of being overfished having drops in the quality and quantity of fish harvested in the past decade.
Kmfri argues that slow uptake of fish farming has also increased pressure on the lake adding that high number of fishermen on the lake in the wake of relaxed regulations results in harvesting of immature fish thus hindering reproduction.
“A two-kilogram tilapia now costs as high as Sh500 up from Sh200 while one kilogram of Nile perch goes for over Sh200 from Sh100 a few months ago,” said the Kisumu BMU chairman Mr John Ouya.
Kisumu County director of Fisheries Mr Joam Etyang said unfavourable climatic conditions are partly to blame for the poor fish farming practices in plain lands in the county.
“Early in the year, there is a long rainless spell thus the heat dries up the ponds. The long rains in the three final months flood the ponds sweeping the fish away. This discourages fish farming,” he said adding that this drives the fisher folk back to the lake.