“He was really beaten”: Violence towards fishers continues on Lake Victoria
Burning of illegal fishing gear in Uganda. Credit: ScienceAfrica
By Ann Mikia
Fishers in Lake Victoria continue to work in fear and trepidation, with many of them detailing acts of violence by the Ugandan armed forces who insist their methods have helped quell illegal fishing.
Journalists funded by the Environmental Reporting Collective (ERC) found that fishers in Uganda and Kenya continue to face acts of violence by Uganda’s armed forces, five years after they were directed to quell illegal and overfishing in Lake Victoria.
Spanning 69,000 square kilometers and teeming with hundreds of species, Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa and chief reservoir of the Nile river, splits its shores between three east Africa countries. Most of it is divided between Tanzania and Uganda, with a smaller section of it under Kenya.
A 2008 study showed that one million tons of fish were caught every year, by 200,000 artisanal fishers who mainly seek Nile tilapia and Nile perch, the most valuable fish in Ugandan waters. Both species were in such demand that illegal fishing coupled with poor fishing methods and pollution caused rapid stock decline between 2011 and 2015, prompting President Yoweri Museveni to speak out against the high levels of corruption in the fishing industry.
By 2017, The Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF), the country’s armed forces, was dispatched to eradicate illegal fishing and enforce strict fishing laws in Uganda and neighboring Kenya.
Since then, the UPDF has been seen as a double-edged sword. On one hand, fish stocks are recovering and several instances of illegal fishing have been exposed. Yet fishers on Lake Victoria fear the harsh punishment carried out by authorities, with some risking their lives to avoid being caught.
In April, as part of a cross-border collaborative investigation supported by the ERC, Science Africa met with Ugandan fishers in Lake Victoria and in Port Victoria, a fishing town in western Kenya.
“They first beat him, forcing him to jump into the lake.”
In Port Victoria, Stella Simiyu recalls in August 2021 when her husband was caught by the UPDF for alleged illegal fishing in the lake.
“They first beat him, forcing him to jump into the lake. But they got him out and went with him. We were called by other fishermen who informed us that he was really beaten and taken to Uganda,” she said.
Within the same community, Silvester Ouro, a 47-year-old fisher, said he was caught by the UPDF and was forced to eat raw fish and hit by a cane over 50 times.
Most recently from a boat stationed at a distance on Lake Victoria in April, Science Africa witnessed a young fisherman jumping into the water after being caught using illegal fishing nets.
These are not isolated cases, experts say. During a weekend raid by the UPDF in 2019, 30 Kenyan fishermen were arrested and their boats and gear confiscated. A 2018 investigation by The Monitor recorded at least 10 fishermen deaths as a result of violence committed by the UPDF.
This year, FIAN International, a global human rights organization, has called on the Ugandan government to stop the criminalization and human rights violation of small-scale fisherfolk in Lake Victoria.
In response to strict enforcement of illegal fishing in Lake Victoria, Ugandan fisheries inspector Mugabi Innocent said the nation has effectively managed fisheries resources for the last ten years, and since 2017, efforts have shifted towards stopping illegal fishing to increase the biomass of fish species.
“Illegal fishing poses a great risk to its about 4 million dependents in the three East African countries,” said Innocent, adding that enforcement measures include requiring boats at landing sites to have number plates or security numbers for identification, stopping fishing boats in fish breeding areas, and confiscating illegal fishing nets such as monofilament, undersized nets and hooks.
Fisheries staff in Uganda measuring a fishing boat to see if it meets legal requirements. Credit: ScienceAfrica
Despite the fear and trepidation among fisherfolk in Lake Victoria, Innocent says the UPDF are delivering positive results.
Prior to the UPDF’s dispatch, catch numbers for Nile perch and Nile tilapia dropped by 46% and 38% respectively between 2011 and 2015, according to the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute (NaFiRRI) catch assessment survey.
By the end of 2017, after President Museveni had sent a UPDF division to Lake Victoria, the NaFiRRI reported that the biomass of the Nile perch rose by 30%. According to the Status of Fish Stocks in Lake Victoria 2017 survey, Lake Victoria recorded the biggest fish stock recovery in 12 years, prompting authorities to consider reopening some processing factories that were previously shut down due to fish scarcity.
Despite this, illegal fishing continues to be on the rise, says Samson Kidera, regional coordinator of fisheries in western Kenya and the Lake Victoria region. He attributes the increase to the use of fishing nets meant to catch smaller fish and fishers not declaring fish at landing sites. This way, details about the quantity of fish netted, its size, and the fishermen involved are not recorded.
Others also insist that the UPDF’s tactics aren’t effective in curbing illegal fishing.
“The excessive use of force in enforcing the law has failed to identify the core of the problem,” says Timothy Odede, the director of fisheries in Busia County,Kenya. Odede suggests that efforts should be made to reduce the number of fishers and fishing gear used in order to increase fish biomass.
“I think it would be more cost-effective to invest in alternatives so that we will have management by alternative livelihoods rather than management by the gun.”
This article was published in collaboration with ScienceAfrica.
