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The Ministry of Fisheries has announced that it will provide 14,000 water vessels in Lake Victoria with number plates from April.

The move is meant to strengthen monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) of the lake.

Kenya Fisheries Officer Robert Wanyama said this will help them address the issue of illegal fishing.

"We have realised that there is need to target boat owners. This is why we want to capture details of the boat owners and boat details so that they are registered and provided with number plates," he said.

"This will be useful for us in the long run. It will help us do MCS. We will be able to control how fishing is done by monitoring if they are using the right fishing gears," Wanyama said. He added," If we get a boat in the lake doing illegal fishing, all we have to document is the number plate which we will use to trace it and follow up later. We don't have to arrest it there and then." He said the registration will also help in combating poor fishing practices