Why Lamu sailors are stuck with old rugged boats
Boats docked at Shela beach in Lamu County on June 30, 2022. At least 99 percent of movement and transport is done at sea in Lamu.
Visitors who land on any of the 35 islands of the Lamu archipelago will easily notice that most sailors use old and rugged marine vessels.
In this county, at least 99 percent of movement and transport is done at sea.
And sailors, fishermen, deep-sea divers and long-distance shippers have always preferred using the old boats, dhows or canoes to manoeuvre through the Indian Ocean.
They are so old that even those who are not experts on maritime matters can confidently point out that they are unseaworthy vessels.
So is it because of poverty, cost or unavailability of materials to build new vessels?
Ahmed Omar, a fisherman who has been in the industry for 30 years, cites the saying ‘old is gold’ as a key factor.
Provided an old dhow, boat or canoe is seaworthy, he said, it is the best, mainly because they are used to the nature of the sea compared with new ones.
A fisher coxswain or a shipper, he said, finds it easier to control and navigate the Indian Ocean when using a boat they have operated for a long time.
“These old boats and dhows you’re seeing here are tougher compared to new vessels. We actually value these old boats like gold,” he said.
“They’re precious to us because we believe they have the experience of sailing across the Indian Ocean. They can’t be defeated easily by the tidal waves and strong winds. That means such boats don’t capsize easily.”
Hussein Lali, a long-distance shipper ferrying cargo from Lamu Island to Kiunga on the Lamu-Somalia border, said he has stuck with his boat for 10 years and has no plan to buy a new vessel.
He said his old boat has made thousands of trips in the Lamu archipelago and survived dangerous routes and channels.
Abubakar Twalib, the Lamu Fishermen and Dealers Association chairperson, noted that only moneyed individuals can afford to make or buy new boats or dhows.
The bigger the vessel the higher the cost, he said.
For instance, a normal-size speed boat goes for between Sh1 million and Sh1.5 million and it takes less than a month to assemble.
But bigger vessels, also referred to as the water buses, go for between Sh2.5 million and Sh3 million, and they take about three months to build.
Due to the high cost of new vessels, he said, most Lamu seafarers prefer sticking with their old and ragged boats and dhows.
If the prices of new boats were lower, seafarers said they would buy new ones.
Ayub Mwalimu said Lamu sailors use old vessels because they have to.
“Most boat and dhow operators and owners here are low-income citizens – fishermen, lobster divers and cargo shippers. The cost of acquiring new vessels is way beyond our means, considering the fact that the industry doesn’t fetch much in terms of returns nowadays,” Mr Mwalimu.
He said that if prices were reduced to “between Sh250,000 to Sh500,000 for the normal fibre boats” some seafarers may consider buying new ones.
