Stakeholders in the Fisheries sector in Bondo and Rarieda sub counties, have called on parliament to come up with two separate bills that will regulate aquaculture and fisheries sectors respectively in the country.
Speaking during a public participation on the Fisheries management and development Bill 2023, the stakeholders who included leadership of Beach Management Units across the two sub counties and investors in the aquaculture (fish cage) sector, said the current bill is not comprehensive enough to deal with the two sectors, which have similar objectives but are operationalized differently.
Led by CEO of the African Blue, Albert Altena, the stakeholders said that the bill is a copy and paste of the 2016 Fisheries Act, which does not recognise new technologies, issues of climate change and pollution.
Altena, who is also a member of Lake Victoria Fisheries Association, said fishermen in the region want parliament to shelve the bill and instead draft two separate bills production in Kenya.
” We need completely new bills as the current bill does not recognise aquaculture as part of fish production in Kenya. We should have a bill for Fisheries and another one for aquaculture. The aquaculture industry is ready to help the government fix issues in the sector, so that it can help boost the declining fish stocks in lake Victoria,” said Altena.
The stakeholders who were giving their views before the parliament departmental committee on Blue Economy, water and irrigation led by David Bowen, also said the current bill has caused confusion in the roles that are to be undertaken by the national and county governments impeding growth of the sector.
“One of the key issues that we have picked from our fisheries stakeholders during the public participation is the fact that the current bill is not clear on the function of county or national government because it gives the fisheries function to the county government, while fishing function is left for national government. As a committee of parliament we shall seek to clarify the same in accordance with the provisions of the law,” said Bowen.
The committee chair, also revealed that they have picked up the concern from the stakeholders requiring two separate bills for Fisheries and the other for aquaculture rather than having one amorphous one that does not comprehensively address unique needs of the two sub sectors.
Additionally, Bowen, who is also the Marakwet East MP, flanked by other committee members including Kamket Kassait (Tiaty) and Joyce Bensuda(Homa bay women rep ) said the fisheries stakeholders have proposed for the inclusion of a clause in the bill that will ensure the Beach Management Units (BMUs) are funded.
“Although BMUs have executive powers run and manage beaches for both the national and county governments, they are struggling financially and the stakeholders have proposed that the bill should ensure they are funded to undertake their functions effectively,” they observed.
Bondo MP Dr. Gedion Ochanda who hosted the parliamentary committee team, said the Fisheries management and development Bill needs a lot of improvement because it changes very little from the 2016 Act, yet there have been a lot of changes in technology and how things are done that really need to be taken into account for the purpose of enhancing the Fisheries sector.
By Brian Ondeng
