A simple fisherman stands up for his community against the fish kills in Winam Gulf of
Lake Victoria in Kisumu, Kenya.
Since November 2024 fisherfolk and community members have noted with great concern, an increased incidence of fish kills in Lake Victoria. The reports reached Osiepe Sango-Friends of Lake Victoria and the Usonaki Social Justice Centre based in Usoma Beach. Sand harvesting with wanton abandon on the shores of the Lake has also been a thorny issue given that the sand within the Lake itself has been depleted, the 30 meters of government riparian land also completely mined resulting in loss of biodiversity, loss of habitat for aquatic animals, loss of grazing land for both wild and domesticated animals and increased incidence of human - wildlife conflict. Once alerted over the issue, Osiepe Sango and Usonaki SJC members organized a meeting with the fisherfolk leadership. There it was agreed that government agencies mandated to research and regulate activities in Lake Victoria be invited to a meeting with the community at the grassroots level, to sensitize community members on the negative impacts of sand harvesting on their livelihoods and tackle the frequent fish kills in the Winam Gulf area.
On the 7th February 2025. Invited organisations included: National Environment Management Authority-NEMA Kenya, The Kenya Fisheries Service, The Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute-KMFRI, The Kenya Coast Guard Services and the County Fisheries Development. Transform Empowerment for Action Initiative-TEAM and MAGNAM Environmental Network. The latter had documented the most recent fish kills on 16th and 28th January 2025.
The first two government agencies mentioned sent apologies but the latter three attended and had a really insightful engagement with community members. They explained their mandate as laid out in the statutes and patiently listened to grievances from the community. The key complaint from the community was the reduced fish stock especially over the past 3-4 years. This depletion coincided with manufacturing operations of a multinational corporate entity. Community members indicated that they had been observing the entity discharge their very smelly waste water into the storm drain along Nkrumah Road every morning and evening. The choking smell led to complaints from the community, the corporate entity then changed tack and was now discharging directly into the Lake during the night. Fisherfolk indicated that the recent fish kills were preceded by a very foul stench the night before. Complaints by the local leadership to the manufacturer had yielded no results with the entity insisting they had put up a wastewater treatment and discharged their wastewater through the Kisumu Water and Sanitation Company-KIWASCO. One of the lady fish traders expressed her deep disappointment that Fisheries officers were busy burning the local fisherfolk's nets and yet were unable to curb pollution from manufacturers. She asked the fisheries official what stopped him from ending the choking stench and wastewater being discharged into the Lake with the same speed he burns nets belonging to fisherfolk who don’t adhere to requisite sizes. She noted that the downtrodden seemingly have no rights to defend themselves while manufacturers blatantly pollute the environment and no action is taken against them.
The discussion took the better part of the day and at the end of it community members indicated to the team from the government agencies that they would wish to be represented at the next week’s meeting convened by the Kisumu County Commissioner to receive reports from tests conducted on the water samples immediately taken after the fish kills on the 26th and 28th of January 2025.
At the February 12th meeting at the Kisumu County Commissioner’s Boardroom, community members were once again very vocal, detailing events preceding fish kills and rejecting the corporate entities assertions that their wastewater is treated and discharged into the KIWASCO infrastructure. Community members insisted that manufacturers operating along inland waterways must open their facilities to scrutiny and have a point source where the public and CSOs can randomly collect the waste water for independent analysis. The community members also pushed for adhoc visits to manufacturer's premises to establish whether they are treating their waste to the required standards. A committee is to be formed not just to follow up on the matter of discharge of effluent into waterways but also the conservation of the Lake and reclamation of wetlands.
A community member rose towards the end of the heated discussions. He noted he was neither a qualified scientist nor a professional but being a fisherman born and bred along the Lakeshores, descended from a lineage of fisherfolk. His expertise of the Lake came from passed down generational knowledge and hard work. “There is no reason for people to doubt a hippopotamus's report that the crocodile is ill.”, a local saying used to indicate that it doesn't take an expert to notice something is wrong. He asserted that the manufacturer in question discharges effluent into the Lake at 00.00hrs & 03.00hrs while they (the fisherfolk) are out fishing. He further stated that whereas the manufacturer employs very many people, the Lake employs millions.
He meant simply pollution via direct discharge of effluent must stop, whichever which way! You could have heard a pin drop! It was a very proud moment for the CSOs present. This is the stuff community organising is made of! Community members have this innate power within them that once they realise and begin to voice, silences even the top echelons of business management, administration and academia. No more games and sugar coating of major issues that are hurting grassroots communities! Long live community organising long live!
Millicent held a presentation on this topic, which can be viewed on youtube.
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