Illegal fishing in L. Victoria threatens the livelihood of 3.5m people

It is fair to argue that what goes on around the lake symbolises the larger Community, including its new members Rwanda and Burundi, as these problems are not limited to the fish sector.

On funding, the three partner states — Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania — foot the organisation’s recurrent budget, while donors (mainly the European Union) fund its development budget.

This includes support to research institutions in the three countries through EU’s European Development Fund.

However, the EU is set to exit in 2010, leaving the governments to bridge the funding gap.

For a start, the Council of Ministers has an emergency action fund of $600,000 for each partner state.

There is talk, however, of including Rwanda and Burundi to expand the mandate of LVFO beyond the current three partner states.

According to executive secretary Dick Nyeko, the Kagera River that flows into Lake Victoria is a natural link with Rwanda and Burundi.

And though the communities in those countries do not engage in fishing as an economic activity, they import fish from their EAC neighbours.

“One would like to see them involved in LVFO, and the ‘political direction’ probably means they will be — something on which a section of stakeholders agree. The Council of Ministers has deferred their membership in the meantime,” Mr Nyeko said in an in-house interview, circulated to the media.

Over the years, the Jinja-based LVFO has improved the infrastructure of landing sites across the three countries and established social facilities — including mobile clinics to fight HIV/Aids, malaria and waterborne diseases, school support and sanitation.

The organisation also equips fishing communities with weighing scales and elementary processing equipment to ease on marketing.