Transforming Lake Victoria’s Fish Landing Sites: A GOK-IFAD Investment Securing Livelihoods, Reducing Rural Poverty, and Advancing BETA through Food Security, Incomes, and Social Inclusion
1. Infrastructure Revolution: A KES 1.45 Billion Strategic Investment
The State Department for Blue Economy and Fisheries, in partnership with the Aquaculture Business Development Programme (ABDP), has launched an ambitious infrastructure transformation along the shorelines of Lake Victoria. Financed through a joint funding framework by the Government of Kenya and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), this approximately KES 1.45 billion project directly targets post-harvest losses by establishing safe, modern, and hygienic hubs for local fishing communities.
Key Infrastructure Deliverables:
- Modern Cold Chain Facilities: Solar-powered cold storage units and integrated ice-production machines designed to preserve fresh catches immediately upon landing, maintaining their value and quality.
- Hygienic Market Spaces: Upgraded fish-cleaning Banda structures equipped with clean running water, reliable drainage systems, and stainless-steel sorting surfaces and driers to satisfy food safety standards.
- Dignified Work Environments: Comprehensive social infrastructure, including gender-segregated sanitation blocks, clean locker spaces, and secure trading stalls.
2. Site Location and Status
Development works are moving forward concurrently across all nine (9) designated fish landing sites spanning five lakeside counties. This synchronized construction phase focuses on immediate post-harvest readiness to smoothly transition traditional artisanal activities into viable commercial aquaculture ventures.
Site Breakdown
- Homa Bay County (Mainuga, Wakula, Nyandiwa)
- Kisumu County (Ogal, Asat)
- Migori County (Got Kachola)
- Busia County (Bumbe)
- Siaya County (Wichlum, Kokach)
3. Integrated Social Safeguards and Community Empowerment
Recognizing that world-class infrastructure requires resilient social systems, ABDP has prioritized the development and rollout of comprehensive social safeguard interventions across all nine active landing sites. These measures are designed to protect vulnerable market actors, reduce social friction, and lay the groundwork for inclusive economic participation.
Key interventions undertaken include:
- Development and Rollout of Conflict Resolution Mechanisms – Tailored, transparent dispute resolution frameworks were developed and fully operationalized at all nine landing sites. These mechanisms provide structured pathways for handling resource-use friction and daily operational disagreements, ensuring that commercial activities proceed smoothly and equitably.
- SEAH Sensitization Campaigns – Aggressive awareness campaigns on Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment (SEAH) were conducted at every landing site. These sensitization drives targeted actors within the fish-trading value chain, equipping them with knowledge to identify, prevent, and report exploitative behaviors, thereby fostering safer working environments for all.
- Gender Action Learning System (GALS) Household Methodology – To strengthen the link between infrastructure investment and household-level impact, ABDP conducted sensitization sessions on the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) Household Methodology for cage beneficiaries linked to the landing sites. This community-led framework trains families to plan finances collaboratively, track household assets transparently, and treat aquaculture as a shared family enterprise ensuring that income generated translates into improved nutrition, education, and long-term resilience
- Targeting of Potential Landing Site Beneficiaries – In preparation for full operationalization, a targeted beneficiary identification exercise was carried out to ensure that resources, memberships, and opportunities including women, youth, and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) are equitably distributed among community members who stand to benefit most from the upgraded facilities.
4. Market Integration and Expansion
The upgraded landing sites serve as the physical anchors for the rapidly expanding Lake Victoria Cage Culture enterprises, functioning as primary consolidation hubs where smallholder aquaculture groups can aggregate their harvests to achieve commercial volumes.
- Public-Private Partnerships (MoUs): ABDP continues to broker strategic agreements, such as the landmark MoU signing for the Ngeri Community Cages, directly linking local production groups with major commercial off-takers like Rio Fish Farm to secure predictable, fair market pricing.
- Socio-economic Inclusion: ABDP anchors social inclusion in a participatory, community-led framework that reserves opportunities for women, youth, and PWDs including cage culture and group memberships while actively fostering women traders’ business groups to secure their full economic participation.
