Kenya gets Sh3.5 billion vessel to help in fight against illegal fishing

david nganga

August 21, 2017 6:20 PM

Kenya loses an estimated Ksh10 billion ($97 million) annually due to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in its territorial waters.

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Kenya is set to step up its fight against illegal fishing at its Indian Ocean territory following the delivery of a Sh3.5 billion($33 million) sea patrol vessel.

The MV Doria offshore patrol vessel was handed over to Kenya’s Ministry of Fisheries, Livestock and Agriculture in Bangladesh this week and is expected to sail to the country at the end of the month.

‘’The ship will ensure security at the maritime boundary of Kenyan coastal boundary and will be fully manned by civilian crew who have already been recruited,’’ Fisheries Principal Secretary Micheni Ntiba said last year.

Denmark’s JGH Marine ordered the vessel on Kenya’s behalf in 2014. The vessel was wholly designed and developed by Icarus Marine in Cape Town.

The 54-metre long vessel will operate over a range of more than 1,500 nautical miles in the Indian Ocean off the East African coast.

Over the years, local fishermen have complained that foreign trawlers have been fishing up to the seashores targeting prawns and lobsters off the coast of Malindi and Lamu.

In 2014, President Uhuru Kenyatta said that Kenya loses an estimated Ksh10 billion ($97 million) annually due to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in its territorial waters

david nganga