At least 269 marine deaths have been recorded in Lake Victoria in the past decade, most of them attributed to noncompliance of required sea travel standards, a senior Kenya Maritime Authority official has said.
According to KMA’s Maritime Safety department official, Oliver Maina, the deaths were as a result of 420 accidents in the lake between 2015 and 2025.
Speaking during a stakeholders’ validation workshop at Bondo technical training institute, Maina said most of the deaths were caused by drowning adding that this could have been prevented by simply wearing a life jacket.
“This is a high number, the severity of it is that every accident leads to two fatalities,” he said. In order to reduce the high number of accidents, the KMA official said that the government has embarked on a multimillion-shilling Lake Victoria Maritime Communications and Transport project that aims at addressing the issue of substandard vessels, overloading of both cargo and passengers and accidents in the lake.
He said that plans were also underway to open offices in Busia, Siaya, Homabay, Kisumu and Migori counties to bring operations close to the public. KMA, he added, will further establish search and rescue centres within the counties.
“The primary rescue coordination centre will be established within the Kisumu regional office with sub centres in Wich Lum beach (Siaya), Mulukoba (Busia), Mbita (Homabay) and Bongu beach in Migori county,” he said adding that the stations will be equipped with fast rescue boats.
He said that the Authority will also roll out a new Maritime Safety Information System designed to provide real-time weather and hazard alerts to fishermen and transporters before they set sail. “Our statistics show that most of the accidents are caused by adverse weather where fishermen go out to the lake without enough weather information and when they encounter adverse weather, it leads to fatalities,” he said.
As part of the project, the Authority also plans to equip more than 17,000 personnel with skills adding: “Within three years, it will not be possible to ride a boat within Lake Victoria without the required certificate,” he said adding that they are targeting 15,000 people to train as coxswains during the period.
Bandari Maritime Academy official, Franklin Onyango said the institution was ready to train and certify those who will be selected to benefit from the program. “We will provide them with internationally recognized training,” said Onyango.
On his part, Siaya County Beach Management Unit (BMU) Coordinator, Willis Ochieng, said that the County Government is also planning for additional satellite rescue centres at Usenge and Luanda Kotieno to complement KMA centres.
“We are here to make sure the beneficiaries are recruited in a free and fair manner through our BMU network,” he said.
By Philip Onyango
