Kisumu county rolls out Sh36 million cage fish project

Fish cages established by Victory Farms in Lake Victoria near Rowo Beach, Suba Sub-county, Homa Bay County. [File, Standard]

Governor Anyang' Nyong'o's administration has embarked on an ambitious plan to revamp the fishing industry by providing fishermen with fish cages.

The Sh36 million project is meant to shield the traditional fishermen from being rendered jobless owing to increasing commercialisation of the fisheries sector by private investors.

The Agriculture CEC, Kenneth Onyango said the aqua culture business development project is co-funded by the county government and International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).

This project targets 300 traditional fishermen in Ogal, Paga, Asat and Nyamarwaka beaches.

"We are starting with 12 cages as a pilot and then later will increase to 20 in the coming months," Onyango said.

He said the project is meant to protect traditional fishermen’s livelihood after investors put fish cages in the lake.

Onyango revealed that the county government would continue to look for partners to help the fishermen put more cages to the lake. He thanked IFAD for supporting the cage fishing project.

According to the Agriculture and Fisheries Department, each cage costs Sh1,536,500.

In his state of the county address in December 2024, Governor Anyang' Nyong'o said the county government has rolled out a sensitisation program for fishermen through their Beach Management Units, especially on the management of cage fishing.

"This is among the projects we have lined up to address the decline in fish production in our county due to poor lake resource management, inadequate access to quality fish and adequate post-harvest handling infrastructure, and climate change effects," Prof Nyong'o said.

The governor said that the Agriculture department rehabilitated five tonnes capacity Ogal beach fish cold storage to help address post-harvest losses which continue to pose challenges to access to fish market.

"This cooling facility will act as an aggregation center and as a point of sale for fish in South West Kisumu ward.  Similarly, a 250kg production capacity ice flakes-making machine was delivered and installed at Dunga Beach," he said.

According to Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, Lake Victoria has an estimated carrying capacity of 25,427 cages.

However, the lake currently contains 6,000 fish cages with an annual production capacity of more than 10,000 tonnes largely of Nile perch and tilapia.