Museveni orders screening of fishermen on Lake Victoria

President Museveni has ordered the screening of all fishermen on Lake Victoria, particularly in Kalangala Islands, to check the rampant illegal fishing activities on the lake.
Mr Museveni said the government will not inject more money into cage farming before the lake is cleared of illegal fishermen.
 “Why don’t you get the elders of Ssese and organise the fishing sector here? It needs people who control and regulate the activities on the lake,” the President said while addressing a rally at Kibanga Primary School in Kalangala last Friday.
The President was concluding a four-day tour of Greater Masaka, which was aimed at popularising the government’s wealth creation agenda.
“This [lake] is like a mine that doesn’t have rules and regulations. There must be control. We should own this. Fishermen must have permits and be fully registered. I have given you two months, I shall come back,” he said.
 “We should not allow outsiders to destroy our thing, we should organise the fishing ground,” he added.  
Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries indicate that 14,600 boats have so far been registered on Lake Victoria, of which 9,306 are licensed, accounting for 64 percent of the registered boats. The annual fish licensing exercise which kicked off in January is set to end on Wednesday.
Registration and licensing of fishermen is intended to regulate fishing and avert depletion as a result of illegal fishing methods.
Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, the Works and Transport minister, who hails from Kalangala, told the President that illegal fishing is fueled by migrants on the islands.
“Your Excellency, the elders have remained very few, and the people engaging in illegal fishing from the mainland came with a lot of force,” he said.
In an interview with this publication on Saturday, Mr Godfrey Ssenyonga Kambugu, the national chairperson of the Association of Fishers and Lake Users of Uganda (AFALU), said they lack the capacity to stop outsiders from joining the fishing business.
“Fishermen don’t have the power to stop anyone from fishing. It is the government which can do that and we are ready to work with it to get rid of wrong people who are killing our business,” he said.
He added that there is a lucrative market for immature fish and it is the reason many people including those in government are trading in illegal fish.
“Since fishing is an economic activity, some people are just joining to make money, some have three to four fishing nets tied together and it is difficult to detect that they are engaging in illegal fishing,” Mr Kambugu said.
The President said the majority of residents in Kalangala currently do oil palm growing as their main economic activity.
 “I encourage you to add cattle and poultry farming to oil palm. The manure from the animals would be used as fertilizers on your plantations. You will get fertilizers and then milk and eggs which you will in turn sell to make more money,” Mr Museveni said.
Background
Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater lake by surface area in the world. It harbours immense natural resources including fisheries, forests and wetlands and is a source of livelihood for more than 40 million people in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
The lake is also home to about 400 species of fish.
In January 2017, President Museveni formed Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) to crackdown on illegal fishing on Ugandan water bodies which was blamed for the dwindling fish stocks in the country. This has in the last three years seen fish stock, especially nile perch, significantly increase in size.
Although the work of soldiers under FPU has been commended by a section of stakeholders in the fisheries sub-sector, many politicians and fishermen have criticised them for their high-handedness in dealing with people suspected of engaging in illegal fishing.
Over the last 15 years, the fisheries sector has played an important social and economic role in Uganda as the second largest foreign exchange earner, contributing 2.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 12 percent to agricultural GDP.