MOMBASA, KENYA: A Mombasa-based civil society organisation has called for the repossession of grabbed or blocked fish landing sites in Mombasa county.
In its latest report complied in February but released in Mombasa on Monday, Haki Yetu Organisation which is associated with the Bangladesh Catholic Church Parish in Mombasa, listed 51 fish landing sites which it says have been grabbed or are in danger of being acquired by the speculators.
The report indicates that 18 sites were grabbed by individuals and institutions while more than 30 sites have not been gazetted and hence exposed to grabbers.
The report urges the National Land Commission (NLC) and Mombasa county government to carry out a survey and ensure all landing sites are issued with title deeds in the name of registered Beach Management Units (BMUs). It also calls for immediate revocation of titles of the grabbed sites.
The report has been released by the Haki Yetu director and priest in charge of the Bangladesh parish Father Gabriel Dolan.
Father Dolan notes that the coast region annual catch stands only at five percent of the 174,000 metric tonnes of fish produced in the country because of neglect of the coastal fisheries and corruption.
"The report shows that at the heart of unproductivity is corruption. Fishermen have seen their landing sites disappear one by one to hotels, industries, churches, beach plots and foreigners," Father Dolan noted.
The report is titled "Nowhere to land: The case of grabbed, inaccessible and neglected fish landing sites in Mombasa county."
It says that at the Kibarani landing site, Kenya Railways plot number VMN/508 under a 99-year lease with effect from January 1 1966 has been subdivided and transferred to a private company for Sh30 million.
However the report notes that files for various landing sites are missing at the land offices.