Fading fortunes: Tides turn against Tana River's fishing community

In a fishing village on the Indian Ocean coastline in Kipini, Tana River County, a group of fishermen are gathered in groups, engaged in deep conversations.

Some speak loudly, while others gesture towards moored dhows and small engine boats where their colleagues are busy unloading fish.

The fishermen's discussions revolve around the situation of the community's source of livelihood -- where more than 80 per cent of residents depend on fishing for their living.

Kipini is where the Tana River meets the Indian Ocean and is the only marine fishing zone in the county.

Residents have been fishing here for centuries, as their principal source of income. But in recent years, fortunes have changed.

The stocks near the shores have dwindled and their traditional fishing equipment have limited them from fully exploiting the stocks in the high seas.

“We have been struggling for years fishing in this ocean without getting much out of it and we have no alternative source of income other than the same fishing,” says Mr Said Omar, as fellow fishermen agree in a chorus.

Mr Omar says their dependence on traditional fishing equipment due to lack of modern fishing gears and crafts has limited their ability.

Mr Badi Mohamed, also a fisherman, angrily says: “We are tired talking to our leaders and governments to provide us with modern fishing equipment and cold storage plant to harness our fishing lifestyle.”

Exploited by middlemen

Even from their little daily catch, the fishermen hardly earn much due to lack of transport and ready market. They are also exploited by middlemen and dealers. For instance, they sell a kilogramme of tuna fish and kingfish at between Sh250 and Sh300, compared with Sh600 by fish dealers and Sh800 in leading hotels in Malindi and Mombasa tourist towns.

Whereas Kipini fishermen sell other less expensive classified fish types including pomfret, sail fish, mackerel bait and parrot fish to dealers at between Sh100 to Sh250, the same dealers end up selling the same fish in Mombasa and Malindi for up to Sh380 per kilo.

Ms Saida Azwaj Idris is among dozens of Kipini fishmongers and members of a local tuna fisheries group who dry fish using a solar panel donated by the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute(Kemfri).

She laments that hardworking fishermen have failed to reap maximum profits due to poor infrastructure and lack of a market.

“Those challenges have left them being exploited by middle men. They are poor artisanal fishermen who needs a lot of empowerment,” she added.

Ms Saida further further says that lack of cold storage facilities have also hampered their group, the Kipini Tuna Women Fisheries Group, from realising their vision of large-scale fish processing for commercial sales and export.

Throwaway prices

“We do very few quantities for local consumption compared to the huge amount of fish brought from the sea that only ends up being sold at throw away prices,” says Ms Saida.

Local Beach Management Unit(BMU) chairman Jamal Nassir indicates that they can only exploit fish within five nautical miles out of the county’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) 200 nautical miles, since their traditional crafts like powered small engines and wind propelled dhows, limiting their capacity to exploit stocks in the deep seas.

“Our fishermen uses traditional gears like dhow and engine propelled boats that lack the required capacity to move deep into the ocean.

"We recently received 16 cooler boxes from the governor but we appeal to him to consider empowering us with modern fishing equipment that will help us exploit beyond the five nautical miles,” added Mr Nassir.

The EEZ is a sea zone prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea that gives special rights for exploration and use of marine resources, including fishing, and energy production from water and wind.

Government statistics indicate that Kenya's zone has potential for 300,000 metric tonnes of valuable fish stocks that could translate to an excess of Sh30 billion annually if well managed.

Last year, Kenya's total marine fish catch was 7,600 tonnes, earning Sh1.27 billion according to the government's statistics bureau. The catch was a 10.6 per cent decline from the previous year's 8,500 tonnes.

The fall in production is attributed to inadequate capacity to utilise the country's exclusive economic zones.

In Tana River County, despite the abundance of a wide variety of fish, the average total production stands at 20,000kgs valued at Sh20 million, county statistics indicate.

Foreign exploitation

Mr Nassir says illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities by highly equipped foreign commercial fishing companies continue to exploit the rest of the country’s territorial waters.

“We want the government to get rid of foreign commercial fishing companies who are involved in illegal fishing and other irresponsible activities destroying our marine ecosystem,” he asserted.
Early this year, Governor Hussein Dado said he had commenced talks with the European Union with a view to getting a grant that would help build a fish storage facility, a fish processing machine, an ice making machine and fishing boats in Kipini.
“We are committed to ensuring our fishermen are properly equipped in order to reap maximum from our marine resources,” added Mr Dado.

However, local fishermen like Mr Badi and Mr Omar are sceptical. They say most of the county’s short, medium and long term fisheries development plans are yet to be realised.

“The fisheries development officers only conduct sensitisation meetings and leave us with empty promises that there are plans to equip us with modern nets and modern fishing boats,” they said.

The fishermen urged the county government to expand the coastal and marine fish landing sites from the current only one in order to create more space for fishermen to undertake their activities.

They are also blaming local beach management leadership for lack of transparency and accountability in managing fishing resources given by the county and other donors.

“We have a leadership crisis within our BMU which is supposed to be our voice. We might blame the county but we are being exploited by the leadership,” claimed Mr Badi.

He added: “Brokers and middlemen are also purchasing our fish at throwaway prices. We need the county government to address the marketing challenges as well equip us with modern fishing gears because they are collecting levies and they should harness our business”.