All fishing and tourism boats operating on Lake Naivasha will be outfitted with unique registration number plates to combat unlawful fishing.
According to Alex Munga, Regional Director of the Kenya Maritime Authority [KMA], the identifying and labeling of all licensed vessels is aimed at improving compliance with maritime and fisheries legislation in order to promote efficient sector governance.
Munga stated that the exercise is also intended to address the lake’s prevalent illicit fishing operations, emphasizing that only licensed vessels would be permitted to operate.
Munga stated that after all vessels have been registered, boat operators would be able to get bank loans and insurance policies under the blue economy blueprint rules.
The KMA Director was addressing at a consultative stakeholder meeting held at Lake Naivasha to educate and integrate public feedback on the exercise.
Tarambeta Beach Chairman Rajab Omari praised the initiative to install new registration plates on registered boats, claiming that they had incurred significant losses due to repeated attacks by fish poachers.
