Small
scale fishermen displaced by a USD 5 billion (EUR 4.5 billion)
multi-purpose port in Kenya’s town of Lamu are protesting the delayed
compensation that they say has plunged them into poverty as they are
unable to acquire modern fishing equipment suitable for deep sea
fishing.
The nearly 5,000 small scale fishermen say only
large-scale industrial fishing vessels are now operating in the
archipelago of Lamu, some of them illegally accessing fishing zones
reserved for small-scale fishing with potential to destroy the fish
breeding habitats along Kenya’s coastline.
“We are seeing more
bigger fishing vessels accessing areas that have been reserved for the
small scale fishers in Lamu county and we fear this will lead to
destruction of our fisheries and force the fish to migrate as has
happened to other fishing zones along Kenya’s coastline,” said Abubakar
Ibrahim, the chairperson of the Lamu Fishers and Dealers Organization.
He
told SeafoodSource the small fishers have already presented a protest
note to the county government of Lamu against the large fishing vessels’
illegal activities “but we are yet to receive any positive response nor
are the activities of the large fishing vessels abating.”
In 2017, President Uhuru Kenyatta claimed
foreign trawlers enter Kenya’s waters and “return to their countries
filled with our fish” and ordered the intercepting of all illegal
fishing vessels and suspension of the fishing licenses of all
international trawlers operating in the country’s territorial waters,
until they complied with the local input requirements.
Meanwhile,
Abubakar has blamed the delayed compensation of the fishermen and
continued operation of illegal trawlers on the small fishers’ “lack of
awareness on their rights and the reluctance by local county government
to support us.”
“Most of the small fishers along Kenya’s coastal
counties of Lamu, Mombasa and Kilifi are still grappling with high
poverty levels and some have no idea about their rights hence
perpetrators of illegal fishing activities are taking advantage of
them,” he said.
The High Court in Kenya awarded the fishermen USD
17 million (EUR 15.4 million) for being negatively impacted by the
construction of the USD 5 billion (EUR 4.5 billion) multi-purpose port
located at Manda bat with 32 deep sea berths. The fishers complained to the court
the project “will have far reaching consequences on the marine
ecosystem of the Lamu region in terms of the destruction of the mangrove
forests, discharge of industrial effluents into the environment, and
effects of the fish species and marine life.”
The compensation was to enable them acquire modern fishing boats that would enable them access deep sea fishing grounds.
“Currently
the fishermen have no fishing equipment to enable fish in the high
waters and are risking their lives because after they were displaced
from their fishing sites compensation has taken too long yet they must
eke out a livelihood from the sea,” said Yunus Ahmed of HAKI Africa, a
national human rights organization in Kenya.
The county government of Lamu, has in its current 5-year development plan
projected an increase in high quality landing fish by the county’s
small scale fishers to 5,6000 tons by end of 2022 from the current 2,500
tons.
Photo courtesy of Lamu County Government
Source: https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/kenya-fishers-protest-influx-of-bigger-vessels-caused-by-new-port
