Locals suffer as fish numbers in Turkwel dam dwindle

More than 300,000 people in West Pokot County who depend on commercial fishing at the Turkwel dam are grappling with declining stocks.

They attribute the diminishing numbers of fish to low water levels, overfishing and lack of restocking fingerlings.

Locals, who normally keep livestock, ventured into fishing as an alternative source of income.

Most of them ditched cattle rustling for commercial fishing, earning attractive returns.

Ms Winnie Chepkemoi said she solely depends on fishing as her source of income and is worried about dwindling fish stocks.

“In this area, we don’t grow maize. We depend on income from fish to pay school fees for our children but fish are scarce,” she said.

Since May, she said, water levels have been dropping and fishers are struggling to sustain their business.

Mr Wilberforce Oundo said that when the moon is full, fish hide in deep waters.

He also said that there has been overfishing, with no restocking of fingerlings since 2019.

“When the moon is bright you can’t catch fish at night. They hide beneath the stones,” he said.

He noted that fishing at the dam is not regulated and locals do not allow fish to breed.

“Fishing has seasons. There are times we do get a lot of fish but at the moment there is no fish. The fishermen must move to deeper ends to get the fish,” he said.

West Pokot Agriculture executive Geoffrey Lipale said overfishing had affected production and the county has not restocked fingerlings since 2019.

Dam is small

He said fish farming became an attractive business opportunity for cattle keepers and more than 2,000 people fished at the dam.

“From the initial 300 fishmongers, all of a sudden the number increased to 2,000 and the dam is small,” he said.

“The reason we don’t restock is we wanted to restrict the people from fishing but they resisted.”

He noted that the drop in water levels has also affected fishing in the area.

“When it rains the fish are usually pushed to the banks and are easily netted. The water levels have reduced due to drought,” he said.

This comes even as commercial fish farming is gaining popularity among cereal farmers in the North Rift region, the country’s food basket.

Most farmers invest in the sub-sector to profit from attractive returns due to increased demand caused by dwindling fish stocks in Lake Victoria.

About 2,400 farmers have ventured into farm-fishing or aquaculture, which generated an estimated Sh160 million in the last financial year.

An average of 1,312 metric tonnes of fish was produced from aquaculture and the yield is expected to increase following an aggressive campaign by the Ministry of Agriculture and support from the University of Eldoret on the appropriate fish species to cultivate in the region.

“Aquaculture has proved to be a source of self-employment and income generation and therefore contributes to the government’s overall goal of eradicating poverty,” said Simion Lagat, from Nandi County, who has invested in the sector.

A medium-sized tilapia goes for between Sh300 and Sh500, which the cereal farmers find more profitable than maize or wheat.

“It is more profitable to invest in commercial fish farming due to low capital compared with the liberalised cereal sector that is facing market challenges that have resulted in unsteady prices for the commodities,” said Jackson Kosgei, from Chepkoilel, Uasin Gishu County.

The fisheries department at the University of Eldoret has launched education programmes for farmers who have invested in fish farming in the region. It has fish ponds for demonstration programmes.

The investment in fishing was boosted by a change in the feeding culture of locals from cereals and milk as a stable diet.

“More people are now consuming fish than before after realising its high nutritional value, thus motivating cereal farmers to invest in the sub-sector,” said Mary Too, another fish farmer in Saos, Nandi County.

The government set up 200 fish ponds in 140 constituencies for fish farming under the economic stimulus programme more than 10 years ago.

Some of the fish pond projects were set up in wetland areas in Nandi, Uasin Gishu, Trans Nzoia and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties.