From: Juma Mzuri
Author: Dr. Antipas T. Massawe/0754653924/massaweantipas@hotmail.com
People and natural resources such as the renewable like fertile lands, lakes, rivers and oceans and the nonrenewable mineral resources like iron, copper, nickel, coal, oil and gas, diamonds, gemstones and rare earths have always been source of the seed capital, raw materials and the technologies involved in the manufacturing practice behind the sustainable processes of wealth creation most of the wealthiest economies worldwide are characterized with and should be source of the same for the African continent.
Despite of been one of the most gifted in terms of natural resources and manufacturing potentials, Africa is still the world’s poorest and most backward continent in its application of modern technologies and its share of global manufacturing is only 1 % and shrinking as its labour intensive made goods fail to compete with the imported goods which are more competitive in the local market because they are manufactured using modern technologies which are continuously modernizing.
Africa failed to enable realization of its huge manufacturing potentials because the individual going African countries are on in the foreign lead exploitation of there natural resources is not earning their Governments much of the revenue they deserved due to bad mineral policies, legislations and rampant corruption and/or professional incompetence among the Government officials responsible.
And, most of the little revenue African Governments earn here is not wisely invested in the development of the foundation infrastructures required to enable the countries to attract their deserved share of Global investing in manufacturing due faulty investment priorities, corruption and/or professional incompetence among the Government officials responsible. As a consequence, Africa remains a net exporter of raw materials cheaply and importer of manufactured goods costly when technological illiteracy, joblessness and poverty among its majority population escalate.
Even the exponential increases of Foreign Direct Investments experienced on the Continent in the past decade and reported by Elsabé Loots and Alain Kabundi didn’t earn the Continent deserved benefit because most were associated with the exploitation of nonrenewable mineral resources as raw materials like crude oil for export instead of local manufacturing.
Collaboration among African Countries is required to enable collective responsibility in ensuring they earn their deserved share of the wealth generated from exploitation of their natural resources for investing in the development of the foundation infrastructures required to enable the Continent attract its deserved share of Global investing in manufacturing and the modern technologies it is associated with by accomplishing as follows:
development of the All Africa Master Plan of integrated foundation of infrastructures which is required to make Africa attractive for the Global investing in manufacturing;
formulation of All Africa common mineral policies and legislations which are required to enable African countries to earn their deserved share of the wealth generated from exploitation of their natural resources;
development of the All Africa Master Plan of priority manufacturing potentials;
formulation of All Africa common policies and legislations which are required to encourage and enable individual African countries to invest the revenues they earn from exploitation of their natural resources in the development of the All Africa Master Plans of integrated foundation of infrastructures and/or priority manufacturing potentials;
formulation of All Africa common legislations which discourage exportation of raw materials which are essential in the development of the All Africa Master Plans of integrated foundation of infrastructures and/or priority manufacturing potentials or unprocessed.
The manufacturing growth potentials Africa is gifted with are one of the best among the countries sharing the Indian, Atlantic and Mediterranean Oceans and their coastlines in North and South America, Middle East and Asia. If their exploitation is well organized and managed, the Continent could become one of the leading manufacturers worldwide.
Africa is strategically located on the interface of world’s leading marine trade exchange between markets within
and around the Atlantic, Indian and Mediterranean Oceans and surrounded all around with very extensive coastlines and numerous sites which are suitable potentials for the development of marine ports to facilitate marine trade exchange between the main Global markets in Africa and within and around the three Oceans.
Africa is also one of the most gifted in terms of its favourable climate throughout the year, mineral resources, fertile lands, forests, freshwater bodies and potentials for fresh water dams construction, fresh and salt water fishing, hydro, coal, solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear power generation and a lot of other natural gifts of great importance in the development of a highly competitive African manufacturing economy.
The natural advantages Africa is gifted with over most of the rest worldwide plus its huge population of 1 billion in 2009 and which has a high growth rate of 3 % make it the ideal place for the ongoing raw materials of Africa based global manufacturing for markets within and around the Atlantic, Indian and Mediterranean Oceans.
Despite of being gifted with all what is required to turn the Continent into one of the leading players in the fisheries, agriculture, forestry and mineral resources based Global manufacturing, Africa is still one of the least manufacturing continent in the world and a net exporter of raw materials cheaply and importer of manufactured goods costly from foreign markets which are naturally less competitive for manufacturing investments compared to Africa.
Africa’s present share of global manufacturing is 1 % and shrinking as its labour intensive manufacturing going on in conditions of limited financing and unreliable and costly power supply and transportation of raw materials becomes uncompetitive in-front of the highly productive and cost effective modern technologies based global manufacturing going on in the foreign markets where financing is readily available and power supply and transportation of materials most reliable and cost effective worldwide.
Africa failed to secure its deserved share of global manufacturing because the individual going African countries are on in the exploitation of their natural resources has failed to enable them and their Continent into one of the most attractive for the modern technology based Global investing in manufacturing.
Africa failed because markets of individual African countries are too small and the individual going African countries are on in their uncoordinated foreign dominated exploitation of their natural resources like the nonrenewable mineral resources is not earning them their deserved share of the wealth generated due to bad mineral policies, legislations and rampant corruption and/or professional incompetence among the Government officials involved in the scrutiny and approval of mineral contracts which favour foreign explorers and miners at the expense of their own Governments and fellow citizens.
Again, rampant corruption and/or professional incompetence among the officials responsible in the management of Government revenue and its investing and the faulty and/or conflicting investment priorities most of the African countries are on in their individual going resulted into most of the little revenue individual African countries are earning from the foreign dominated exploitation of their nonrenewable minerals ending up in the pockets of corrupt individuals and most of the rest invested on faulty priorities other than in the development of a well harmonized and/or integrated foundation of infrastructures like transportation and power generation and transmission throughout the manufacturing and market potentials in all African countries.
Having all African manufacturing and marketing potentials well covered with reliable and cost effective networks of materials transport and power generation and transmission is essential in the minimization of cost in African manufacturing and movement of materials throughout its fast growing population of more than 1 billion and enable it to realize its natural competitiveness for Global investing in manufacturing.
Lack of the foundation infrastructures required to enable Africa to realize its natural competitiveness for Global investing in manufacturing is what forced countries on the Continent to remain net exporters of unprocessed raw materials cheaply and importers of the manufactured goods they consume costly. This is bad because Africa earns just a mere fraction of the natural wealth inherent in its exports of unprocessed raw materials and as it imports the manufactured goods costly, the Continent continues sinking deep into poverty as earnings from unprocessed raw materials exported cheaply remain insufficient to finance the importation of all essential goods costly.
As a net exporter of raw materials and importer of manufactured goods, the Continent also continues sinking deep into technological backwardness and become more and more unproductive and poorer, as it fails to secure application of modern technologies in local manufacturing; as its natural resources like the nonrenewable mineral resources continue been drained away cheaply by foreigners; and as its hydropower generation potentials like the Grand Inga and the Stigler’s hydropower generation potentials in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania continue draining as waste into the Atlantic and Indian Oceans when acute shortage of power supply is such a huge hindrance of development on the Continent.
Even though, Africa is still rescue-able because the huge natural wealth still in its possession in the form of natural resources like nonrenewable mineral resources and power generation potentials is a lot more than required to finance development of the integrated foundation of infrastructures which is required to enable the Continent realize its natural competitiveness for Global investing in manufacturing.
Rescue of Africa requires African Governments to decide and pass resolution that their individual policies and legislations which are involved should be reviewed and harmonized to effect common strategies and African collaboration in the exploitation of the wealth inherent in natural resources like nonrenewable mineral resources and power generation potentials within individual African countries in order to ensure African countries earn their deserved share of the wealth generated and investing it wisely in the development of the All African Integrated foundation of infrastructures like transport and power generation and transmission which are required to enable Africa realize its natural competitiveness for global investing in manufacturing and reverse trend in which Africa is a net exporter of unprocessed raw materials cheaply and importer of manufactured goods costly.
Idea is to enable individual African countries to overcome their chronic dependence on developed nations (especially the former colonial masters) for aid, which is often tied up with condition that individual African countries should adopt policies and legislations which discourage collaboration among themselves in favour of the collaboration of individual African countries with the developed donor nations in the management and exploitation of their natural resources in which African countries will remain net exporters of raw materials to the former colonial masters cheaply and importers of manufactured goods from the same costly.
Objectives of African collaboration are:
to enable African countries to formulate and dictate All Africa common terms in their collaboration with non African countries in the management and exploitation of natural resources on the Continent and establish a win-win situation in which African countries will earn their deserved share of the wealth inherent in their natural resources;
to formulate the common All Africa Master plan of integrated foundation of infrastructures like in transportation, power generation and transmission and water supply which are required to enable the continent realize its natural competitiveness for Global investing in manufacturing;
to identify priority manufacturing potentials like in fisheries, agriculture, forestry and mineral resources in all African countries and formulate the All Africa Master Plan of priority manufacturing potentials and promote it for Global investing;
to formulate African common policies and legislations required to ensure individual African countries earn their deserved share of the wealth inherent in their natural resources like nonrenewable mineral resources and discourage exportation of raw materials in favour of importation of Global investing in manufacturing;
to formulate guidelines for encouraging and enabling individual African countries to invest the revenues they earn from exploitation of their natural resources in the development of the All Africa Master plans of integrated foundation of infrastructures and priority manufacturing potentials anywhere on the Continent, provided that new developments and their capacities won’t compromise the market shares of developments already on ground and cause underutilization of costly African infrastructures and manufacturing facilities already on ground due to;
to establish and adopt common measures against corrupt practices in the doing of business on the Continent;
to enable African countries to invest in the development of economic growth potentials anywhere on the continent and secure their deserved shares of Global investing for manufacturing and benefit from the modernizing technologies and job opportunities inherent in Global investing for manufacturing.
Aim is to achieve the collective responsibility of all African Governments in ensuring that exploitation of natural resources like nonrenewable mineral resources within individual countries on the Continent earns them their deserved shares of the revenues generated for investing in the development of the All Africa Master plans of integrated foundation of infrastructures and priority manufacturing potentials anywhere on the Continent to reverse trend in which the Continent is a net exporter of raw materials cheaply and importer of manufactured goods costly.
Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
Experts have once again sounded a stern warning that Lake Victoria is facing ecological disaster if the particles from dry hyacinth weed are left to rot and sink inside its waters.
The Kenya Marine and fisheries Research Institute {kemri} said in Kisumu this week that if the hyacinth weeds sunk, aquatic life would be placed at the high risk.
Several fish species in the lake, especially the much cherished Nile Perch and Tilapia and small fish like [Omena} that cannot survive inside the water with few oxygen concentration might be completely wiped out, said Dr Ojwang’ Oweke the KEMRI’s senior scientist.
Mad fish, locally known as “Kamongo” and cat fish locally called “Mumi”are among the specifies that can survive in the water with low oxygen concentration.
According to KEMRI’s researcher’s water hyacinth produces humid acid when it decomposes in the water-a process that used oxygen and deprives aquatic plants and animals of fresh air.
The acid contains harmful elements lie iron and manganese which the scientist attributed to the brown color of water supplied in the region by the Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company ltd.
Dr. Oweke called upon the government to make use of colleges and universities in the region to assist in removing the dry weed by use of conveyor belt.
“This is the time for the government to come and try to use the conveyor belt mechanism t remove the dry hyacinth so as to save the lake.:
“The manual removal used by Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project in 2011 and late last year was a total waste of money, and time because this poised a high risk to the laborers and it also led to ever sprouting of the dreadful weed.
The scientist the machine would clear the dry water hyacinth and ump on the shore where it would be burned.
Reupen Omondi, another scientist said the hyacinth had turned brown because weevils had fed on it as it was drying up.
He insects were introduced in the lake by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute in 2005.
“Weevils are killing the weed and the government need to respond quickly to remove danger from destroying ecosystem, he said.
Ends
Reports Leo Odera Omolo
RESCUERS and search team have retrieved the half consumed body of a 17 year old girl who was killed by a Nile Crocodile as she went to the lakeside to fetch for waters.
Anne Auma was killed early last week, but her half eaten body was recovered last Saturday inside the reed plantation.
The search team was joined by the staff of the KWS. Residents have since appealed to the KWS and the government to hunt down the killer reptile and ensure that the villagers were safe from such attacks in future.
Report reaching us says that there are upsurge of incidents of crocodile attacks in various parts of Lake Victoria. An incident was recently reported around Kokwiri in Uyoma West .Rarieda district where a fisherman was devoured by a crocodile.
Another incident occurred on Rusinga Island in Mbita district. There are numerous incidents involving crocodile attacking and killing domesticated animals such as sheep and goats.
IN uriri district in Migori County a 12 year old school girl who had gone to the River Oyani with her mother on clothes washing mission was attacked and killed by a crocodile.The animal population had declined after the massive hunting down and killing hundreds for their valuable skins in the early 1950s. However, the colonial government reintroduced the reptiles back into the lake in early 1960.
The menace of crocodile attacking human being and animals in Lake Victoria has risen..
Crocodiles feeds on fish, but in the absence of sufficient number of fish in the lake for its feeding it can resort to hunting down human beings and domestic animals for prey..
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Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Homa-Bay Town.
FISHING business activities has resumed in earnest after the current and strong winds swept away the water surface of Lake Victoria leaving it clean.
The stakeholders and those involved in fish mongering business as well as thousands of fishermen operating in the rake were on Wednesday this week seen preparing their boats and other fishing gear in readiness to re-deploy them on the lake.
The menace of the water hyacinth weeds did not only hampered the fishing activities, but also blockaded the water surface and even ships steamers and all vessels plying the region, especially those ferrying cargoes and shop-good between the eastern shore of Kisumu pier to neighboring countries like Uganda, Rwanda and Northern Tanzania had come to virtual the last seven months.
The worse hit areas were along the shorelines of the Nyanza Gulf {formerly Kivirondo Gulf covering Bondo, Rarieda, Seme, Kisumu, Nyando, Nyakach, Rachuonyo North and Homa-Bay.
The weed had blocked the lake water making the navigation of steamers and even fishing boats impossible. On two occasions, the government was urgently summoned to avail police helicopter to come to the rescue of fishermen whose boats were stranded in the lake for several days without food or water for drinks.
This happened near Soklo Island ,which is just located a few kilometers outside Homa-Bay town and in Karabondi area in Karachuonyo east.
The invasion of water hyacinth weeds in the last seven months had hampered the fishing activities and has sent the price of fish skyrocketing. Close to 50,000 fishermen are operating inside the Kenyan side of the second largest water mass, which is shared between Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
A good number of fishermen had abandoned their trade and quit the trade in search of green pasture elsewhere. The fishing industry is the mainstay of the economy of the region, coming only second to sugar cane farming.
Experts say that there are close to 4000 fishing boats operating in Nyanza Province and the industry is supporting close to 3 million people, especially those living close to the shorelines of the lake.
The Kenyan fishing communities stretches from River Sio and Rwambwa areas Busia, Busia district and covered the widest area which included the two Nyakach, Nyando, Seme in Kisumu County , Raried and Asembo, Yimbo, Mageta Islands, Oyamo Island, in Uyoma peninsula in Siaya County and,,Gwassi, Mbita, Rachuonyo, Rangwe, in Homa-Bay County,and also small portion of Nyatie in Migori County.
Statistics recently made available by the fisheries department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment moderately indicated that Kenya is raking in Kshs 13 billion annually in foreign exchange as the results of its export of the highly prized Nile Perch filets to the Middle East, Japan, Israel, EU and the US.
Residents of Nyanza Provnce, however, have appealed to the government to find the lasting solution to the menace of water hyacinth weeds.
It could be either removed by mechanized means or manually by hired youths the same way the Ugandan government has done.
A recent report released by the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute revealed that the number of fishermen and fish landing sites in Nyanza Province has decreased and reduced drastically in a span of two years.
The report released in Kisumu two weeks ago indicated that fishing landing sites decreased from 324 in 2010 to 311 last year due to the menace caused by the water hyacinth on Lake Victoria.
It also send a warning signal about the dwindling stock of fish in the lake due to over-fishing, the use of illegal fishing methods
The problem is blamed squarely on lack of protection of fisheries resources and corruption by those assigned the duty of protecting it by the relevant Ministry.
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Fishermen on a fishing expedition in Lake Victoria's Kenyan side.
By Dickens Wasonga.
According to maritime experts, an estimated 5000 people drown in Lake Victoria annually as risks of navigating through the lake waters persists. These are people who perish in the lake while either using it for transport or on fishing expedition.
Addressing journalists from Kisumu during a special media briefing organized by the Lake Victoria Basin Commission last week in Kakamega town to give a report on achievements by the commission since 2006 , the LVBC Executive Secretary Dr. Canisius Kanangire said the trend was worrying EAC member countries and revealed that efforts to reverse it were already being enhanced.
The LVBC boss said bad weather, unstable boats, over loading, lack of safety gadgets and poor seamanship amongst others are some of the reasons being attributed by maritime authorities as being behind the increasing cases of accidents within the world's second largest fresh water lake.
However all is not lost . Lake Victoria Basin Commission which was established 6 years ago by the EAC member’s states to promote and facilitate sustainable utilization of the natural resources within the basin has embarked on the implementation of an ambitious four year strategic plan which amongst other measures will address safety of the lake.
Already the East African Legislative Assembly that draws its membership from the five EAC partner states has enacted Lake Victoria Transport Act which will soon be fully operational zed to help in regulating navigation and shipping laws to be jointly applied by the member states in order to improve safety within lake Victoria.
Amongst a raft of measures, the commission’s four year strategic plan also seeks to establish 16 search and rescue stations around the lake. Out of the 16 stations, 3 will be on the Kenyan side, 8 in Tanzania and 5 in Uganda. The allocation , according to LVBC was pegged on the size of the lake each member country occupies.
The stations will also serve as training centers where people can learn about maritime safety among them the fishermen many of whom have perished in the lake waters in the past. The commission is also in the process of putting in place a maritime telecommunication network which is set to cover the lake surface as well as the entire shoreline.
Towards this end an emergency number 110, which can be used for search and rescue services in Lake Victoria by anyone in distress has also been adopted for use by the national regulatory authorities of each of the EAC states.
According to the LVBC Maritime Communication and Safety on Lake Victoria project coordinator Eng. Vincent Hagono, a pilot emergency response control and positioning center has already been launched and tested in Kampala Uganda in the network that will cover over 80 per cent of the fishing areas of the lake.
Eng. Hagono said phase one of the project that seeks to ensure safety in the lake started three years ago at a cost of 20 million US dollars while its second phase will require additional 10 million US dollars to complete.
LVBC , headquartered in Kisumu Kenya is facilitating and promoting the implementation of a number of key community driven projects executed by various state actors in each member state amongst them, water supply and sanitation projects, protection of water catchment areas, income generating activities which in the end should aid it in its vision of having a prosperous population living in a healthy and a sustainably managed environment .
Currently the commission which receives 90% of its funding from the World Bank is headed by Dr. Canisius Kanangire of Rwanda as its Executive Secretary and has a staff of 60 people drawn from across the EAC partners’ states. It plans to build a state of the art offices in Kisumu where the host country Kenya has donated 2.5 hectares piece of land for the project.
ENDS.
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu
Lake Victoria the world's second largest inland water mass is rapidly losing its fish stock. The worse affected is the economically prized Nile Perch species.
According to the information contained in statistics compiled from various fish landing beaches on the Kenyan side of the lake, the Nile Perch, which is commonly known as “Mbuta”, is an asset to the country because Kenya export tones of its fillets to the European, Japan, US and Israel markets.
The statistics are backed up by a study report by the Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute {KMFRU}. Nile Perch species stocks in the lake has reduced to 34 per cent.
Mbuta was among many alien species of fish introduced into Lake Victoria in 1950s by the British colonial authorities to boost its economic benefits, but this has turned to be unsustainable in the long term since the lake ‘s ecological function and ecosystem suffer from elements beyond its boundaries.
According to the research, 49 per cent of Nile Perch is harvested before it reaches maturity stage, thereby interfering with the reproduction process.
A mature Nile Perch weights over 200kgs and is more than six feet long; but the KMFRI study says fishermen do not let the fish grow to this size. The Nile Perch is also a predator that dominates its surrounding and feeds on other fish as well as its own offspring.
KMFRI researcher Simon Agembe was recently quoted as saying that due to reduced fish yields, reducing biodiversity and water borne diseases, the livelihood and well being of more than 40 million people who depended on the lake’s resources, remains at risk.
Dr Agembe said if the fishing is not regulated, stocks of other species like dagaa {Omena} is likely to decline since fishermen are piling pressure on them.
Dagaa’s decline stands at 54 per cent. The study recommends that the government puts measures that will protect Nile Perch and other species in place.
The study proposed the protection of breeding areas and introduction of an alternative source of food in the lake region and income for fishermen to reduce the pressure on the lake.
Expert attribute the deflation of fish stocks in Lake Victoria to over-fishing, the use of unlawful and wrong fishing gears such as fish nets, the illegal use of chemicals which kills fish in their thousands, .
Fishermen and villagers around Luanda Koteno in Rarieda district were recently reported to have cornered and killed one fisherman who was caught red-handed while using chemicals at night in this way.\
A good number of youths, who are suspected to have lynched the fisherman they found using chemicals on fish, were later rounded up and charged with the murder in a Kisumu court., But the use of chemicals on fish is said to be still on the upsurge.
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Write Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
LIVESTOCK farmers in the North Rift district of Nandi are having counting losses after a yet to be identified wild animal attacked their stock during dead hours of the night.
More than ten local farmers at Chepterit and Tukon villages in Nandi Central district have reported that several of their goats and sheep had been killed by a wild animal.
The mysterious animal has also attacked more than ten cattle by biting off their tails. Two local farmers who are among the affected farmers said their individual losses were amounting to over Khs 200,000.
Mr Abraham Kago and Mrs Rose and Mr Wesley Saina told the newsmen that the animal, which has been roaming the villages for the last two weeks, had killed a total of ten sheep, three goats and two cows.
The mysterious attack the livestock at night by breaking into livestock shed and biting the throats of sheep and goats. It only sucks blood and leaves the carcasses,“ said Mr Kago.
The farmers said that attempt to hunt for the mysterious for the mysterious animal and kill it have been futile despite assistance from the Kenya Wild life Services [KWS} game wardens an rangers.” Even though we have been working I hand with KWS officers, we have not succeeded because the armed game warden just avail themselves during the day when the beat is hiding,”added Mr Kago.
The game warden in-charge in Nandi County Joel Kanda could no be reached on phone of Central Nandi County. However a local source that KWS men were there on the ground hunting down the mysterious beast.
This incident came barely three months after Tsavo cat attacked livestock in the neighboring Ndalat location in Nandi North district killing over 30 sheep and goats.
Experts were, however, still analyzing the nature of the latest attack on livestock in Nandi, but could not agree on which type of animals could be responsible. Other says it could be a rogue leopard or wild dogs, but leopard is known not to attack big prey such as cows, but only prey on smaller domestic animals such as sheep.
While in the lakeside town of Bondo about 80 kilometer northwest of here, residents of Usigu Division in Yimbo Kadimo Division, Bondo district within Siaya County residents on Monday this week held demonstrations to protest over rampant incidents of hippo on fishermen working on Lake Victoria fish landing beaches. The demonstrators while carrying twigs and chanting anti-Kenya Wildlife Service slogans, the residents led by one parliamentary aspirant William Abuonji marched to the DC’s office to demand solution to their grievances.
The demonstrators claimed they have lost several relatives to hippo an crocodiles attacks against human being, but KWS had taken no action to protect their people
‘We have lost 20 people in the last three months, but KWS has not even attempted check human wildlife conflict here. We cannot afford to lose more lives,”Said Abuonji.
The number of people who have died due to hippo attack on lake shoreline or beaches along Lake Victoria have increase three times.
The protest followed an incident in which a 40-year old fisherman drowned to the lake last week after his boat was hit and overturned by a rough hippo off Siungu Beach in West Yimo location last Sunday night.Two weeks before that a 20-year old fisherman also died from another hippo attack off the same beach.
In September six people drowned in the lake after their boat was hit by hippo at Goye in Bondo and a week later a father & son died between Misori Beach and Magare Island in the neighboring Rarieda district in similar circumstance.
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From: News Release - African Press Organization (APO)
PRESS RELEASE
Forum wraps Up with Suggestions for Sustainable Use of Africa’s Natural Resources
Africa accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land that need to be protected against rapacious speculation
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, October 29, 2012/ -- The eighth African Development Forum (ADF VIII) wound up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Thursday with the adoption of a Consensus Statement suggesting better ways in which African countries can use their natural resources to promote people-centered sustainable development.
The 11-page document is the tangible result of the October 23-25 forum on the theme “Governing and Harnessing Natural Resources for Africa’s Development.”
It focused on how to generate maximum benefits from the exploitation of Africa’s lands, minerals, fisheries and forests for the benefits of the people.
On land, which has come under intense speculative pressure from local and foreign investors, the document calls for scientific and methodical approaches to land issues that would guarantee transparency, equity and sustainability.
These include strengthening policy, access, property rights, and investment in large scale agriculture in line with the existing Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).
Africa accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land that need to be protected against rapacious speculation.
In an open letter to Forum participants, OXFAM said some 50 million hectares had been acquired in 700 transactions in recent years.
However, the mining sector incarnates the paradox of Africa’s natural wealth, where bounty breeds penury. According to the Consensus Statement, Africa ranks first or second in known world reserves of bauxite, chromite, cobalt, industrial diamond, manganese, phosphate rock, platinum-group metals, soda ash, vermiculite and zirconium. The continent is home to one-fifth of global gold and uranium supplies, while over 30 countries produce oil and gas in commercial quantity.
To resolve this dilemma, the Forum, among other measures, called for the implementation of the African Mining Vision adopted by African leaders in 2009. The vision sets out how mining can be used to drive the development of their countries.
According to the document, “transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of mineral resources to underpin broad-based sustainable growth and socio-economic development is the major challenge for African countries today.”
On fisheries and aquatic resources, the Forum called for the strengthening of policies, legislation, strategies, investment and collaboration among states in various areas to develop the sector. Greater attention also needed to be paid to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) action plan on inland, coastal and marine fisheries and aquaculture at the national and regional levels. Africa loses a million tons of fishery resources estimated at over US $600 million annually to illegal and unreported fishing.
The forum dwelt at length on the need for the sustainable exploitation and preservation of Africa’s forests estimated at 675 million hectares or 17 per cent of global forests. The need for sustainable exploitation of the Congo Basin, the second largest forest in the world, was a recurrent theme at the gathering.
The Statement cited policy, legal, regulatory, economic, governance, equity, knowledge, institutional and environmental constraints as critical to the sustainable management of Africa’s forest resources with a developmental vision.
“Overcoming these constraints is key for attaining inter-sectoral linkages between agriculture, forest, industries and human settlement in Africa,” the document added.
The ADF, a United Nations Economic Commission for Africa biennial event is convened in collaboration with the African Union Commission, African Development Bank, and other partners to establish an African-driven development agenda that reflects consensus and leads to specific programmes for implementation. It is usually attended by some 1,000 participants including Heads of State and Government, African Member State policy-makers, development partners, other United Nations agencies, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (IGOs/NGOs), academia, practitioners, civil society organizations (CSOs), the private sector, eminent policy and opinion leaders, and the media.
Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of the African Development Bank.
Contact: Felix Njoku – n.njoku@afdb.org - +216 71 10 2612
SOURCE
African Development Bank (AfDB)
SIX FISHERMEN DIE IN LAKE VICTORIA FOLLOWING ATTACK BY A ROGUE BULL OF HIPPO AS THE BEAST OVERTURNED THEIR BOAT UPSIDE DOWN.
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu city.
A small fishing Goye village in Yimbo Location,Usenge Division,in Bondo district was yesterday in mourning mood after six young fishermen from the village drowned and perished on Monday morning following an attack by a rogue bull of hippopotamus.
Four of the fishermen survived and were rescued. The incident occurred on Monday morning in their home-made canoe when they encountered the beast. It overturned the boat upside down spilling the ten men occupying into the deep water.
The four managed to swim and clung on the overturned boats for several hours. they were later rescued by the crew of another boat and taken ashore to Usenge Beach fishing landing site. Local rescuers had retrieved only one the body of the victims but by Tuesday after five bodies were still yet to be recovered and the search was continuing.
The incident came only hours after close to 100 fishermen who were marooned inside the lake for three days after their path to the shore was blocked by huge water hyacinth weeds for more than twenty four hours were rescued alive and taken to safety.
The incident took place in Rachuonyo North district where dozens of boats carrying close to 100 fishermen were marooned inside the deep water part of Lake Victoria. The rescue was successful following a joint combined effort Kenya Wildlife Service helicopter and the Provincial Administration in Nyanza Province.
Reports emerging from Bondo say the ten men were fishing in the morning when their boat encountered a huge of a rogue bull of hippo that attacked them and overturned their boat.
The area Chie Daniel Tiang’was quoted as saying that the four survivors had lung on to the overturned boat and signaled for help. By the time the help and assistance came, the six had already drowned.
By y the time of writing this report, Bondo police chief said he had yet to receive the report, but promised to dispatch a team of policemen to the scene of the incident t find pout what had gone wrong.
However, the area civic leader Councilor Agrey Dimo decried the increase incidents of hippos attacking and killing his people unabated.
He appealed to the official s of the Kenya Wildlife Service to control the population of hippos in the area to avoid more deaths.
He alleged that thirty people have been killed in hippo attack in a span of three months. The figure of the alleged victims of hippo attack could not be immediately confirmed with both the police and members of the Provincial Administration within Siaya County. However, observers were in total agreement with the civic leader that the number of incidents of attack and killing by hippos have increased I the recent past.
In the neighboring Mbita district in Homa-Bay County, the residents of Rusinga Island have lost five of their loved ones within last year and early this as the results of hippo attacks.
One knowledgeable and long time resident of Rusinga Island narrated t this writer that hippos had no history of harming people quite often. But he attributed the increases of hippo attacks on human being saying it could be attributed to the lost of green pasture and grass along he lake shorelines and weeds also the lake shore to which the hippos feeds too. They are hungry and liked the weeds and grass on which they feed on. One five ton hippo can feed on between one and two tons of grass per day in the normal circumstances. But due top over farming along the lake’s shorelines these docile and heavily built animals are no longer feeding well and hence sudden change of their temperament.
The only incident whereby the hippos can attack human being is when the female that is nursing a male calf which must be hidden to the dominant male father up t it obtain enough strength to fight the father o some time these animals are so destructive in destroying maize or sorghum millets farms that is next to the lake sore. in such a cases a dominant male hippo if provoked by a farmer guarding his farm can urn hostile an attack. But these are rare cases,” he, added.
The incident only came one day after close to 100 fishermen who were marooned inside Lake Vitoria without water and food for three days were rescued by the government using helicopters.
The fishermen had their path back to the fish landing beaches o the lake shorelines blocked by water hyacinth and weeds for three days without water and food were rescued.
The incident occurred in Karabondi Rambira location and Rakwaro Kamwala sub-location in Karachuonyo East location, in north Rachuonyo district within the County of Homa-Bay.
On of the fishermen who was among dozens of fishermen who rescued from the ordeal Joel Atieno Ogola narrated the three harrowing days which they were tapped for close to three days inside Lake Victoria.
He said most of the fishermen were from villages like Kotieno Gumba, Seka, Karabondi, Rakwaro Kamwla and Kogweno Kobala villages as well as around Kendu-Bay Pier. He said he and his team set for the lake on a fishing expedition last Thursday at about 4.30 P.M.
This was after the water hyacinth weed and cleared away from their beaches. Five hours into the lake waters, the previously calm weather was interrupted all of a sudden by a strong winds and storm that triggered panic among his boat’s crew.
Ogola explained that it was like the scenes and situation similar to those seen in the movies. Suddenly we could see from the dim moonlight that were being marooned by the weed that was being blown from both sides.
From that moment, everything turned dark because of the rains that rapidly increased every minute had also started drenching them.
‘All that they could to is to get anything that could protect them fro the rains,” said another fisherman Sam Okoth. When dawn on the next morning and there was enough light, they realized that they had been driven into the deep part and middle of the lake by the storm.
Okoth and his team were shocked to discover they wee not only in the deep part of the lake but they had also been encircled by the thick blanket of weeds,” he said.
They also discovered that they wee not alone in the lake after they counted about 30 boats and canoes which had between three and four fishermen aboard.
One of the fishermen in their boat had a mobile phone. They tried to use it in contacting the Beach Management Units, but the phone had run short of power and could not offer full conversation with the men on the beach. Crew of another boat had a working cellphone and managed to reach the men on the beach. In the middle of the same day, they D.C for Rachuonyo North and the Police chief arrive at camped at Rambira beach. But all of a sudden they saw a helicopter flying low over their heads. At an earlier attempt to raise the alarm for help they stood on the boat and used their jacket and shirts waving so that they cod catch the eyes o those n shoreline but I van.
The helicopter arrival was as the result of combined efforts by the Kenya Wild Life Services “{KWS}and the Provincial Administration. It was decided that energizing food and water be dropped to them as they were increasingly and rapidly become weaker and weaker.
After having been fed the helicopter dropped winch cable which pulled the boat up, but it got broken somewhere, and the gripped them.
It came when they were increasingly getting worried of the huge weeds, which moving also closing in because of the common stories that these weeds is the home habitat of big and dangerous snakes, and they fear had settled on their minds of possible attack, but noting e that happened.
Ogola denied the rumor that one fisherman man had died of exhaustion an hunger. He said they were only getting weaker, but thanks good all were rescued alive and heathy.
Ends
From: amenya gibson
Paul signing fish deal is ok.
But you need to visit Lake Victoria and you will be shocked with amount of hyacinth there.
So how are we going to harvest those fish when all water is covered with water hyacinth?
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On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 9:14 AM, paul nyandoto wrote:
Guys;
I think that a lot have been said and written against the prime minister of kenya lately. But despite all those he the PM has continued to deliver his services to the nation. I think Raila is having a good spirit for Kenya. If he was evil as a lot have said in these forums, he would not be doing all these good things now. Just ask yourself what job are his DPM(2 in number) are now performing to Kenyans despite getting constant tax payers money and free services now. Read below.
Raila signs Sh382m fish deal
By EVELYN KWAMBOKA
Kenya has signed a Sh382 million trilateral co-operation agreement aimed at economic empowerment.
Signing the deal on behalf of the country Thursday, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said the deal would uplift the living standards of those living in the Lake Victoria basin.
“The agreement signed today identifies aquaculture (fish farming) as the pioneering area of focus which should lead to some quick wins,” he said. The Premiere said the Government had emphasis on fish farming to sustain the ever-growing demand for the commodity, while conserving the biodiversity of the overexploited lake.
During the ceremony at Ramogi Institute of Advanced Technology, Germany’s Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Dirk Niebel and Israel’s Foreign Affairs of the State Deputy Minister Danny Ayalon also signed the deal on behalf of their governments.
In the deal that is currently in phase one that is to last up to 2014, Germany has given Sh134 million, and Israel Sh248 million.
Raila noted the increasing demand for fish has led to excessive pressure on existing water bodies in areas like Lake Victoria where Nile Perch stocks have reduced in the recent years.
“The country’s aquaculture potential stands at 1.4 billion hectares, with the capacity to produce 11 million tons of fish that is worth over Sh50 billion annually,” he said.
Niebel said the cooperation was meant to make the fishing industry sustainable and effective in helping residents earn a living.
He said Kenya is a driving force to the region’s economic development, urging locals to diversify by carrying out fish farming in ponds.
On his part, Ayalon said the cooperation will see the country move from a ‘recipient nation to a donor’.
He said Israel is giving supporting the fishing project in Kisumu on humanitarian grounds.
Others present were ministers Fred Gumo, Margaret Kamar, MPs Fred Outa, Amason Kingi, Aluoch Olago and Kisumu Mayor Sam Okelo.
From: Yona Maro
The Mariana Trench is the deepest point on Earth - five times longer than the Grand Canyon and so deep it could swallow Mount Everest with more than a mile of water to spare. Despite being within the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the area remains a mystery to most Americans, only occasionally appearing in news stories such as during filmmaker James Cameron’s 2012 voyage to its depths.
Papah?naumoku?kea Marine National Monument is located in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Within its pristine waters are some of the healthiest coral reefs in the world, home to more than 7,000 marine species, one-quarter found only in the Hawaiian Archipelago. The islands and shallow-water environments are important habitats for rare species such as the threatened green sea turtle, the world’s rarest species of duck, and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. In addition, 14 million seabirds representing 18 species breed and nest on an area of land less than 15 square kilometers (six square miles) in size.
http://www.pewenvironment.org/uploadedFiles/PEG/Publications/Other_Resource/GOL%20Book%20English-Final%20V1.pdf
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5000 KENYANS HAVE FLED THEIR HOMES ALONG THE KENYA-ETHIOPIAN BORDER FOLLOWINGTHE RECENT KILLINGS OF TEN VILLAGERS BY MERILLE MILITIAMEN IN BORDER RAIDS.
Writes Leo Odera Omolo
MORE than 5,000 people, mainly Kenyan nomadic Turkana tribesmen have been displaced and forced to flee their homes along the Kenya-Ethiopia common border after the attacks by Merille militiamen.
The militiamen from Ethiopia Merille tribe have been attacking villages and fishermen on Lake Turkana. They have been reportedly killed close to ten people in the past two weeks.
A senior Kenyan government official operating on he Kenyan side of the borer confirmed the incident.
“We are deploying security teams along the border to help deal with invaders who have been tormenting our people,” said the District Commissioner for the Turkana North Mr Albert Mwlitsa, adding that the displaced families have since fled their homes and moved away from the villages close t the borderline.”
The D.C said although tension is high in the area, the security personnel posted there will soon bring the situation under control
Ethiopian authorities have also moved their security personnel and deployed their teams a five key border points along their common borders with Kenya.
The official further disclose that tension rose in the area two week ago after the heavily armed Merille militiamen had attacked the innocent Kenyan villagers and killed two people at a place called Mayan a few kilometers from the volatile Todonyang’ border post.
He added, however, that it has been difficult for the security personnel to stop the militiamen frequent raids. “We are working round the clock together and jointly with Ethiopians, but the prevailing high tension has made it difficult to have the community elders in the areas to engage in dialogue so that we could find a lasting peace,” said Mr Mwilitsa over the phone interview.
At the same it has been reported that 500 fishermen from the two countries have fled Lake Turkana following the recent killing of their five colleagues by Merille militiamen.
This particular incident has brought the fishing activities on the lake to halt. Fishing operations inside lake Turkana have been paralyzed.
Clashes between fishermen from the two countries are blamed on Merille militiamen. The Kenyan fishermen were attacked and shot dead on the shores of the lake as they were preparing their fishing nets.
Fishing cannot flourish with insecurity all over. We have agreed that we would jointly restore the security situation so that our people can engage on commercial fishing”, said the D.C. the government has agreed to increase the number o marine polic in the lake from ten to 35. They will be given extra motor boa to be used in patrolling the lake,which is shared by the two countries.
However, Lake Turkana is largely controlled by Ethiopian groups making it difficult for Kenyan fishermen to eat there peacefully.
Ends
From: Yona Maro
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012 reveals that the sector produced a record 128 million tonnes of fish for human food - an average of 18.4 kg per person - providing more than 4.3 billion people with about 15 percent of their animal protein intake. Fisheries and aquaculture are also a source of income for 55 million people.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i2727e/i2727e.pdf
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Writes Leo Odera Omolo in Kisumu City.
FISH stocks in Lake Victoria have reduced so much to a near depletion, according to the latest research finding.
Dr Juma Jembe a researcher working with the Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute has disclosed that statistics of fish stocks in the Nyanza Gulf areas of Lake Victoria is causing a lot of anxiety and worries to scientists.
“The Gulf a stretch of about 60 kilometers, and there is hardly any fish,” said Dr. Jembe, adding that the availability of the economically and commercially important Nile Perch was as low as 1,2 kg per hectare.
The worst affected places are fish landing sites in Kisumu,Siaya and Homa-Bay with some areas in Kisumu region hardly having any fish left in the water. aerial Satellite pictures show the Gulf stretch having a thick green layer.
However, many sections of Tanzania and Uganda have blue clean water. A team of journalist from the Nairobi daily, THE STANDARD, visited Dunga Beach which is located in the outskirt of the Kisumu City, a fish landing beach which has close to 500 fishermen, most of who were reported to be forlom, with their catches being at the lowest in the history of their fishing activity.
Dr Jembe was later quoted by the STANDARD as having attributed the worsening pollution of the lake, especially in the Nyanza Gulf {formerly Kavirondo Gulf} has made it not conducive for fish. Poor farming methods in the water catchment areas has also resulted in nitrates and phosphates in the water.
“The fish move towards areas such as Mbita, where the water is less polluted. This has forced those in the affected to catch even immature fish,” said the scientist.
He went on, ”There is a lot of domestic and industrial effluence in the lake from Kisumu and Homa-Bay.Effluence from sugarcane factories provides nutrients for the obnoxious water hyacinth.
“The weed takes up oxygen and releases carbon dioxide which does not support the existence of fish,’ the researcher said.
Hyacinth has been a major impediment to the survival of fish,” Dr Jember said, adding that "the wind often blows towards many areas of the Nyanza Gulf and thus moves the weeds such as Migori to the Gulf.”
The researcher, however, was silent over the recent alarming claims that some unscrupulous are killing millions of fish through the use of chemicals for easy catches.
Fears persist in all the three countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda which shared the Lake Victoria waters that marketing fish, especially for exports into developed countries markets such to the EU nations, Middle East, Japan, Israel and the United States would experience difficulties after the word spreads to those countries about the chemical fishing.
Chemicals kills immature fish, destroys the fish breeding grounds, and could prove to be health hazards to the consumers.
Fishing industry and fish trades supports close to 10 million people who lives around the shorelines of the world second largest sweet water mass
Ends
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
MEMBER states of the East African Community {EAC} would soon find it difficult to export their fish to the European Union nations unless they put in place joint effort to stamp out chemical fishing in Lake Victoria.
Kenya,Tanzania and Uganda shared the waters of Lake Victoria, However reports appearing in local press indicated there is alarming increase in cases where some unscrupulous fishermen are using chemicals fishing to boost their catches and other unconventional fishing methods, the use of unauthorized fishing gears such as the banned fish nets etc.
Countries that share Lake Victoria are also reported to be unwilling to invest money in joint campaign that would reduce overfishing and protect fish species threatened with extinction in lake despite the contribution these activities make to the economies of these countries.
Overfishing has led to the reduction of fish stocks in Uganda’s big natural water bodies, which contribute over 75 per cent of the total fish catch, thus threatening the country’s second biggest commodity export after coffee.
Fish prices have been on increase, but increment has not been reflected in earnings due to the reduction in the fish catch, which experts blame on dwindling stocks.
Information from Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization {LVFO} shows that Uganda,Tanzania and Kenya promised to contribute USD 600,000 each for the “Save he Nil Perch Fund”, but so far none has given a single penny.
The Nile Perch has, over the years, seen a reduction in it stocks and the money was meant to improve the stocks of this important fish in East Africa. The money was meant to increase to finance the capacity building of partner state institutions, research and combating of illegal fishing activities.
The highly prized Nile Perch is a key fish export for three countries and part of the money was meant to finance capacity building of partner state institutions, research and combating of illegal fishing nets.
The Executive Secretary of the LVFO Mr Dick Nyeko was quoted as having said that the institutions also suffers because states lack the willingness to pay their quotas to his organization. for example, he said, the financial year which is ending within a month time, but so far Uganda hasn’t paid its quota. Two months to the end of the financial year, official at the LVFO sat the organization is limping because it lacks money.
Uganda has paid 19 per cent of its USD 300,000 quota while Kenya gave only USD 200,000 which is 46 per cent of its quota, Tanzania has so far paid USD 247,136, which Is 15 per cent of its quota.
LVFO top official adds that without the threat of expulsion for failure to meet EAC obligations, ministries of agriculture in partner states receive the money and divert it to other remitting it to LVFO, Institutions fighting illegal fishing and for improvement of water quality are also grossly underfunded.
Uganda mostly depend on from EAC projects to safeguard Lake Victoria, with increasing agriculture agriculture in Kalangala Island, there is increased silting due to land recreation and fertilizers from a palm oil project running into Lake Sewage, processing industries and runoff from the surrounding towns is also threatening the lake.
Ends
Writes Leo Odera Omolo.
INFORMATION EMERGING FROM THE East African Community’s secretariat in Arusha says that the Secretary General Richard Sezibera is pushing forward for merger of the budget for all institutions attached to the EAC to help improve their funding.
Somme semi autonomous institutions like the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization {LNVFO} and The Inter-University Council of East Africa{IUCEA] have been operating below budget due to a funding gap after partner states failed to meet their quotas for the financial year that ends this June.
Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, which make up LVFO, have paid 27.6 per cent of the expected USD 837,258.33 while partner states have paid less than 40 per cent of the USD 800,000 they are supposed to pay to IUCEA.
The budgets of the two institutions will be merged with that of the EAC for the first time in the 2012 / 2013 financial year, but partner states will still pay their quotas to thee institutions independently.
Dr Sezibera who was on a visit to Uganda last week to inspect the projects of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission {LVBC} and LVFO however, said in future, the secretariat will have the powers to compel partner states to pay their quotas to all institutions of the EAC on time.”If the money is coming directly from the ministries of education and agriculture into the EAC, we have more leverage,”said Dr Sezibera during a brief address to newsmen at the end of his Ugandan tour.
The secretariat via instruction from the Council to the Summit, will force defaulting member countries to pay up, with help from their presidents.
The EAC secretariat is also seeking to strengthen IUCEA, which received the mandate of the in February to accredit universities in the region through the Inter University Council of East Africa Amendment Bill 2010.
The Secretary-General is also looking at increasing the mandate of the LVFO to cover all the waters of East Africa and for the region to have full control of the fish resources.
Expected Rwanda, Burundi membership.This process will start with the admission of Rwanda and Burundi into LVFO in July this year.
The coming financial year will also see EAC turn LVFO into an East African Fisheries Organization EALFO using a protocol or an East African Legislative Assembly Bill. The EALVFO will help seal loopholes in over-fishing which are exacerbated by having different administration units controlling different waters. EALVFO is also expected to improve the region’s capacity to effectively police its waters.
He went on,”As we address the issue of Somalia, the governments of East Africa have to ensure control of their waters,” Dr Sezibera said, adding that Somalia’s problems like piracy are a result of that country’s failure to control its territorial waters.
The EAC Chief Pointed out that illegal fishing of the Somali coast had denied local residents a key source of livelihood.
The Lake Fisheries Organization promotes the sustainable use of the water bodies resources.
Ends
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
The entire fish stocks in Lake Victoria could be wiped out within the next few years unless the Kenyan government moves much faster and with speed to stamp out the use of chemicals in fishing by unscrupulous fishermen engaged in the use of unconventional and unauthorized fishing methods.
The Fisheries Ministry stands blamed for having abandoned the lake. The fisheries scouts who are usual deployed to oversee the orderly fishing in the lake by stopping those using unauthorized methods of fishing in the lake appeared to have abandoned the lake.
There are alarming increases in cases whereby unscrupulous fishermen engaged in illegal fishing activities with impunity.
Chemicals are used in fishing and not only reported to be killing fish in their thousands, but also destroying fish breeding grounds as well as killing fish fingerlings in the lake as well as endangering the lives of the consumers, something which is likely to put into jeopardy the marketing of Kenya’s fish into the overseas markets.
The environmentalists and conservationist have abandoned their duties and responsibilities of protecting Lake Victoria from environmental degradation pollution, overfishing and the increase use of unauthorized fishing methods by racketeers and profiteers
Lake Victoria is shared by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. All the three countries are known to be earning millions of dollars in foreign currency through the export of fish to the overseas markets, and the East African Community and donor agencies have poured millions of dollars in support of fishing programmes, research and environmental preservation..
Members of the fishing communities who are living along he shorelines of the lake have alleged that each time they arrest those using chemicals, the offender and the culprits are readily getting released by the authorities after bribing their away out of police and fisheries scouts custody.
A shocking incident recently occurred last month in Rarieda district where those enraged as fishermen lynched a man who was caught red-handed during the dead hours of the night to be using chemicals in the lake. The incident has resulted in dozens of people being arraigned in court facing prosecution on murder charges.
Those who were rounded up after the lynching incident have already appeared before a Kisumu court as murder suspects.
The fishermen in Rarieda told this writer that sometime last year, a senior officials from Fisheries department held a public Baraza near Luanda Kotieno beach. The officer was asked by those in attendance to state what they should done with those caught using chemicals, but the officer under pressure responded by telling the Baraza that they should in turn poison such uncouth fisherman and lynch them.
This is exactly what the move justice did near Luanda Kotieno last month. A fisherman who was caught red-handed using chemicals while fishing near the center was chased in the night by a mob of people who beat him to death.
They meted move justice to the illegal fisherman. This was in desperation after several incidences of cases of people caught using chemicals and handed either to the police or the Fisheries department officials quickly gained their freedom after bribing their way to freedom. Fishing regulations are being flouted all over.
As for now eight people are in custody waiting to be tried for murder. The suspects are mostly youths who work at the busy Luanda Kotieno beach as Matatu toughts or petty traders. They had responded to distress call by those who found someone using chemicals in the lake at night and catching hundreds of dead fish.
The suspects were later rounded from villages in Naya Kogweno sub-Location Uyoma West Location, Rarieda district, Siaya County.
The culprit who is now deceased took to his heels with vigilante youths in hot pursuit, and when they caught up with him they beat up him senselessly killing him instantly.
Incidents of chemical fishing have been reported in Busia, Bondo, Mbita, Rachuonyo and Seme area in Kisumu West district.
Lake Victoria fish is being exported to the European Union counties in Europe, Middle East, Japan, Israel and to a lesser extent to the United States, particularly the fillets from the economical and highly prized Nile Perch and Tilapia. The fish stock or both species have been depleted to near zero.
Ends
Writes Leo Odera Omolo
POOR management of the resources coupled with over-fishing, industrial pollution and the of Lake Victoria and its resources.
And now the residents of the region and the communities living along the shorelines of the lake as well as scientists and researchers have raised red flag over the reported rapid depletion of fish stock.
The fisheries ministry officials, especially the fish scouts and officials charged with the responsibilities of ensuring the orderly fishing stand to be blamed for not implementing the government policy to he letter.
Corruption is also cited when it comes to the issues involving fishermen’s using an unauthorized fishing net that kills immature fish.
The scientists and researchers have so far predicted that unless all these malpractices stopped, the lake could be depleted of all fish species in 30 years time, if the environmental degradation was not adequately addressed.
A damning study report recently released by the Lake Victoria Management Programme has revealed that production of the stock of the economically prized Nile Perch went down by 750,000 tones from 2005 to only 232,000tones in 2008.At the same time tilapia number dropped from 27,061 tones to 24,811tone during the same period of time.
“The fish industry sub-sector o the national economy which earns Kshs 7 billion annually in foreign exchange is now said to be set to record reduced revenue as a result,” says the report.
At the same time a researcher from a Swedish University has said that the number of fish species in Lake Victoria had dropped significantly from more than 400 at the turn of the twentieth century to only 192 a the turn of 21st century.
“The situation is alarming because over-fishing environmental degradation and pollution is still at the peak. Due to many industries up stream discharging pollutant material to the lake..
The scarcity of fish and acute supplies has I the recent past sent the prices of the commodity skyrocketing.
Ends
Write Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
A shortage of Pangasius fish in international market markets following flooding in Vietnam is expected to boost Nile Perch exports from Lake Victoria.
Nile Perch sales in Asian and Western European markets have in past few years gradually reduced as more price sensitive consumers opted for Pangasius, a cheaper alternative source of white meat.
Analysis with the Food and Agriculture Organization {FAO} SAID Nile Perch exports from Lake Victoria could rise sharply this ear following shortages of the rival species after massive floods in the main producing Vietnam contaminated ponds.
“Drop in demand doe Pangasius and the increase in the value of marketing of certified Nile Perch in the EU {European Union}, could give extra boost to the fishery products coming from Lake Victoria,” says the agencies I the market update report for the month of April, 2012.
The food in the third quarter of lat year saw nearly 70 per cent of all pangasius fish processing plants in Vietnam Mekong delta shut down due to contaminated fish ponds mainly in Dong Thup and An Ging provinces.
The effects of the damages on the Pangasius market are expected to spill over into much of this year, reviving the Lake Victoria Nile Perch industry whose fortunes have been rising with adoption of certification programme .
Kenya and other East African countries mainly rely on Lake Victoria to support Nile Perch industries even though the business has in the recent years come under pressure from dwindling supplies and weak prices in the international market.
FAO report says, Lake Victoria Nile Perch exports to the EU had began stabilizing due to improved quality standards. In this period, Tanzania was by far the biggest supplier for European countries with 12,300 tones, following by Uganda and Kenya,” the agency said.
Statistics showed that n the first quarter of lat year, the EU remained the main market for Nile Perch with 8,200 tones of fillets coming from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
In 2010, Kenya exported 3,600 tones of Nile Perch fillets to EU markets, while Tanzania sold 16,300 tones and Uganda 11,800 tones.
Apart from competing from Pangasius, the Lake Victoria Nile Perch industry has also suffered an image problem over poor fishing methods that deprived the lake of its potential resources.
Data by the Fisheries Department showed that the Nile Perch stock in Lake Victoria decline from 1.9 million tones to 1.2 million between 1999 and 2001 before dropping drastically to 544,000 tones in 2005.The stocks were estimated at 37o tones in 2008.
As part of efforts to stall dip in Lake Victoria catch, governments have formed beach management units to oversee sustainable exploitation of the fish resources.
Ends
Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Sori/Karungu Bay
FRESH troubles have erupted on the volatile and disputed Migingo fishing island in Lake Victoria a Uganda marine police arrests and detains Kenyan fishermen.
The issue of the disputed rocky island has been the source of discontent and diplomatic thaw between the two partners states of the East African Community for close to eight years ever since the Ugandan authorities invaded the island and posed its revenue officers now collecting taxes from Kenyan fishermen in their own c0ountry. The Island according to 100 yer old colonial maps dawn in 1912 is virtually on the Kenyan side of the border.
Ugandan authorities are demanding that an assistant Chief posted to administer the island on behalf of the Kenya government be withdrawn immediately until such a time when the ownership issues are resolved.
Kenya has kept a contingent of Administration Policemen numbering about 30 on the tiny island. But they Kenyan policemen just sat down as the Ugandan authorities rounded the fishermen over the weekend and warned them not to fish on Ugandan territorial water.
Fishermen have told this reporter over the phone that on Monday morning three Kenyan fishermen were arrested by the Ugandan security personnel who accused them of trespassing into Ugandan waters.
The Ugandan authorities accused Kenyan fishermen for deliberately defying the orders and directive.
Three Kenyan fishermen were picked up by the officers on the disputed tiny fishing island as they returned from fishing expedition. Their boats and their engines intact and the catches were also confiscated.
The arrest of Kenya came barely three days after the Ugandan officers warned Kenyans against stepping into the Ugandan waters unless the Kenyan Assistant Chief recently deployed as an administrator on Migingo Island is removed.
The arrested Kenyans were then whisked away to the nearby Lolwe Island which is situated on the Ugandan side o the disputed waters of lake Victoria and b the time of filing this report, their fate remained unknown.
Armed Kenyan administration policemen on the island could only watch in disbelief as the sh90cked fishermen were bundled into a new speedboat brought in from Jinja town in Eastern Uganda.
Last Saturday, according to the chairman of Migingo Beach Management Unit Juma Omnboori, the Ugandan authorities rounded up all the Kenya fishermen operating on the island and told hem that from now onward they will not be allowed to fish on Ugandan waters.
A to Uganda policeman Agustino Choti told the Kenyan fishermen that a decision to ban Kenyans from he Ugandan water had been taken following of Kenya government having taken unilateral decision of posting an Assistant chef to Migingo while the negotiation to have the island ownership resolved was still in progress. As for now the waters around the island belonged no one, but Kenya should have been patient and wait for the matter to be resolved amicably by the two countries.
Consequently Uganda has sent more marine police and new patrol boats to the island, perhaps to ensure its order was completely enforced. Kenyan fishermen and fish traders operating on Migingop Island have since sent out an gent appeal to the government of Kenya to responds urgently and rescue them from further embarrassment.
“We are also surprised that our policemen who are supposed to protect us on this Island just sat down and watched as Kenyan businessmen and fishermen were being arrested and harassed”, said Juma Ombori.
The Saturday incident too pace while the area MP Edick Omondi Anyanga was a tor of his lakeside constituency, and he immediately appealed to the government of Kenya to expedite talks aimed at resolving the problems of Migingp Island. The legislator also appealed to the Ugandan policemen to treat Kenyans with a lot of respect and not to antagonize them.
Ends
