Fishermen along the coast of Kenya are unhappy, suffering alienation from fruits of their labour. They say they have nothing of their own; not even the little fish they painstakingly catch in the tumultuous ocean.
The fishermen told The Standard they had been held captive by brokers, who buy their fish at a throw-away price but make huge profits selling the same at international markets. Even worse, the brokers determine how much to pay for fish.
To ensure the artisan fishermen remain loyal to them, the brokers have taken advantage of their poverty and provided them with basic fishing gear. This ensures the fishermen have no choice but to sell the fish to the brokers. They are also unable to challenge conditions the brokers and multinationals have imposed on them.
But that is not all that the thousands of fishermen on the 1,420km coastline from Kwale to Lamu, who brave the hostile waters to meet their masters’ demands, have to put up with. The government is in the process of reviving the industrial marine fishing that collapsed in the 1990s and the fishermen fear this could complicate matters, as they lack appropriate fishing gear to venture into deep-sea fishing as the multinationals do.