Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Migori Town.
The news that a contingent of administration policemen has been dispatched to the disputed Migingo Island in Lake Victoria brought a sigh of joy and enthusiasm
The first bunch of policemen boarded a motor boat that ferried to the Migingo Island at Muhuru-Bay pier. The policemen were given a warm ending off by an enthusiastic crowd.
The Nyatike abrasive MP Edick Omondi Anyanga thanked the two principals in the coalition government President Mwai Kibaki and the Prime Minister Raila Odinga for the tireless effort to ensure the safety of Kenyans living, fishing and operating their business and trade on the two islands of Migingo and Ugingo, adding that the move was long over due. However late it is, the move is viewed by the local population as an assurance on the part of the government that it was genuinely concerned and cared for the welfare of its citizens who for close to four year have been subjected to slavery through the occupation of their country by foreign forces.
The MP said Migingo Island is not an important asset for the people of Nyatike alone, but the whole of Kenya taking into account that the area is now the major source fish catches in the lake. The fish in turn is fetching the country millions of shillings in foreign exchange.
The fishing industry, said the MP played a pivotal role in providing the youths with employment and has become an integral part of the nation’s economic growth and development. Uganda’s seizure of the two island and unilaterally posting their revenue and security personnel to man the two islands in Lake Victoria was an act of high provocation,” he added.
It was good news to the local residents that Kenyan security personnel will now be deployed to man the disputed islands jointly with their Ugandan counterparts. But the numbers of Kenyan policemen will supersedes those of their Ugandan counterparts whose strength has remained at 30 mainly marine policemen.
A team of security back will be stationed on the mainland at Muhuru Bay only a few kilometer from the Kenyan-Tanzanian border for rapid deployment in the eventuality of chaos erupting on any of the important islands, of Migingo and Ugingo have now turned out to be the key and fertile fishing ground on the lake with abundance fish catches.
This is part of the agreement reached in a recent meeting held last month in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi and attended by cabinet ministers from Kenya and Uganda.
Nyatike D.C.Allan Machari confirmed that the police officers were moving to the disputed island as part of the Nairobi agreement by the two sister states of Kenya and Uganda. The Kenyan officers, he said, will be there to ensure “our people are safe.
The D.C. however, declined to confirm the numbers of Kenyan policemen are deployed on Migingo, only saying that the Kenyan security personnel will be slightly more than their Ugandan counterparts and the two teams will work together until the survey work to determine the ownership of the island is complete and determined by the two governments.
Geographically, the two disputed islands are too close to the Kenya mainland in Nyatike district and from time immemorial, only Kenyan were fishing on Migingo and its environs, but only about four years when it was the recent discovery that the area is rich in fish, particularly the highly prized and economically important Nile perch is found there in abundance when it saw the great influx of Ugandans, Tanzanians, Somalis, Kikuyus,Kisiis and other groups arrived for the purpose of scrambling for fish.
Ends