President Ruto, who spoke during the Fourth Investment Conference of the African Sub-Sovereign Governments Network (AFSNET), hosted by the Afreximbank in Kisumu County, assured the regional leaders that the government has started a rescue initiative, targeting fishermen in Lake Victoria to end the rampant accidents in the lake.
The initiative dubbed Lake Victoria Rescue and Coordination Center (LVRCC) will incur a whopping 2.7 billion Kenya shillings to hasten the rescue operations, thus bettering the fishing ecosystems in the region.
“Because there have been major accidents, you’ve said every… in Lake Victoria, we lose a lot of people because of facilities that are not adequate. Because some of the infrastructure are not proper, we have decided to do the Lake Victoria Rescue and Coordination Center. Here we’re putting Ksh 2.7 billion to make sure that any accident in Lake Victoria is attended to in record time. So that we better support the whole ecosystem there,” he stated.
On Kabonyo Kanyagwal fish facility, aimed at boosting the fishing industry by eradicating the scarcity through the reproduction of millions of fingerlings, the President assured the regional leaders that the government is set to off-start landing sites across the five fishing counties from Busia to Migori counties.
“I want to confim to the people of this region that the Kabonyo fish facility that will provide 7 million fingerlings every year is off to a start to make sure that we stock Lake Victoria and make sure that we provide a viable for our fishermen and women. We are off to start landing sites along Lake Vitcoria from Bsia all the way to Migori,” he said.
The government is set to spend about 300 million Kenya shillings to build the landing sites, with Asat and Ogal beaches in Kisumu County setting the stage. The facilities will be managed by the county governments of Kisumu, with some of the advertisements for the project set for January 2025. He urged the county government to add additional facilities to facilitate the same.
“Specifically here in Kisumu, we’ve agreed with the professor here that we’re putting up a landing site in Asat and Ogal. The advert for the same will be out in January, and we are going to spend about 300 million shillings to make sure that those facilities will be available, and they will be managed by the county government of Kisumu to make sure that they also add additional facilities to facilitate the whole fishing ecosystem in our region.”
The project is set to reduce the importation due to scarcity of fish probably occassioned by unregulated and illlegal fishing methods and instruments in the region. The president added that “it’s a big shame for us to import fish from Asia in the 21st century, 60 years after independence. That speaks volume of the things we should not be doing.”
Source: CitizenTV/News Agencies.
