Mazera Ndurya
2 November 2009
Nairobi — The ministry of fisheries development will take a fresh inventory of all fish landing sites at the Coast to prevent encroachment on the land by private developers.
Those sites that have been grabbed will also be repossessed and put under the management of local fishermen through the beach management units.
Coast director of fisheries Mrs Martha Mukira said despite a comprehensive report on the location and status of landing sites in the area most of them are now in private hands denying fishermen access.
"We went round the entire region and identified all the fish landing sites from Vanga to Kiunga and gazzetted them but little has been done including putting beacons to secure them.
"The remaining task now is to get back and demarcate the sites and take inventory on all people operating in the areas because the local authorities are the institutions that hold the sites in trust," Mrs Mukira said.
Speaking in Diani during a fact finding mission following complaints by Diani residents association that a beach access and landing site has been taken, she said her ministry was now taking up the matter with the ministry of lands to have the sites issued with title deeds.
The residents led by Mrs Pauline Mackenzie have asked the government and the national environment management authority to intervene and have the custodian of a building along the Trade Winds landing site stopped from using the facility which they claimed was built on a beach access road.
Mrs Mackenzie said the property which is used for fish storage was a health hazard to the residents because it did not conform to public health regulations of disposal of waste water.
One of the fishermen who took part in identifying the landing sites and came up with the report in 2001 Amri Mwamuri blamed the problem on the delays to demarcate the sites which has led to grabbing.
"We need to act very fast now and protect the sites because very soon the fishermen will not have any place to carry out their activities because of constantly being harassed by developers who lay claim to the sites.
"This can only be achieved if the fishermen with the help of the ministry form a strong committee to start fast tracking the process of getting title deeds for the sites and recovering those that have been taken," Mr Mwamuri said.
Mrs Mukira said her office will take the issue of structures on landing sites seriously adding that all the developments must conform to required standards.
She took issue with a case in which an individual had convinced a group of fishermen to build a storage facility for the purposes of monopolizing their catch saying that all the fishermen must have a say in the management of the facilities through the beach management units.
"The ministry is ready to refund all the money that the investor put in building the project at Trade Winds in Diani so that the fishermen can have full authority on its utilisation," she said of the project that has also raised complaints from a section of Diani residents over health and environment concerns.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
