Kenyan Lake Victoria fishermen hard up for fish

KISUMU, Kenya, July 26 (Reuters) It's dawn and the sleepy Kung'a beach on Kenya's shores of Lake Victoria suddenly comes to life.

Several rickety fishing boats arrive after a night-long expedition on the world's second largest freshwater lake.

But the noise and activity die down as fishermen disembark with gloomy faces signifying yet another night of bad catches.

Piling fish stocks on racks, fishermen look desperately for signs of buyers coming from the western city of Kisumu, 150 km away -- but hours later the fish have not moved.

''It is very painful to toil so hard in the dangerous waters of the lake overnight only to see our fruits waste away,'' said father-of-three John Otieno, 42.

Low production, lack of refrigeration, poor roads and unscrupulous middlemen are shrinking the livelihoods of fishermen in east Africa's largest economy.

This month, the United Nations said exporters in poor countries were constrained by limited electricity access and high costs for shipping their goods, adding that more donor aid should be funnelled towards roads and energy services.

Kenyan fishermen are part of an estimated 30 million people in three east African countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania who depend on Lake Victoria for fishing and transport and whose fortunes are closely linked to those of the lake.

The amount of fish caught on the Kenyan side of the lake fell to 111,387 tonnes in 2005 from 159,292 tonnes the year before, according to the government's latest Economic Survey.

The decline in fish stocks has been blamed on overfishing and pollution of Africa's largest body of water by sewage and industrial waste as populations burgeon in shoreside towns and cities.

WASTED FISH Even the fish that are caught are often wasted every day because fishermen lack proper refrigeration equipment.

The perishable nature of the goods is also blamed for the exploitation of fishermen by middlemen.

''We bring the fish but the middlemen sit back until the stocks are threatening to go bad, then offer any price they wish knowing that we are already desperate,'' said Jacob Owino, a fisherman at Kaloka beach, near Kisumu.

Fishermen say they have to catch more and more fish to make up for the fish that has turned rotten in the heat.

A senior official in the Fisheries Department says the lack of refrigeration continues to deal a major blow to fishermen.

''Cooling plants are highly important because the fish stocks could stay in place for long,'' said the department's deputy director Susan Imende, adding that at the moment fishermen are ''forced to act out of desperation'' and accept low prices.

In an effort to help struggling fishermen, the government has supplied eight main beaches along the lake's coast with electricity but only two have fish-cooling plants.

''What we are urging for are more economic partnerships with the private sector to establish cooling plants at various fish-landing beaches around Lake Victoria,'' Imende said.

For now, most large-scale fish traders rely on refrigerated trucks while small-scale dealers use ice-packs to preserve their catch.

''Our refrigerated trucks have to be at the beaches on time, so that when the fish lands it is loaded onto them for transportation,'' said Rajesh Kumar, a fish processor in Kisumu.

But even with cooled trucks, poor roads to some beaches are a nightmare during the rainy season.

''We are forced to avoid some beaches when it rains because they are inaccessible due to bad roads. This directly means that the fish has to go to waste,'' fish-dealer Charles Osewe said.

Reuters DKB DB1111