District leaders, army bicker over closed fish landing sites

Masaka- Masaka District leaders and the Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) have clashed over the planned reopening of landing sites on Lake Victoria shores in Masaka District.

Although the landing sites were closed more than two years ago over operating illegally, the district leaders led by Mr Jude Mbabaali, the Masaka District chairperson, insist the soldiers closed the landing sites before they were consulted.

“In our records, we have established that all the closed landing sites are gazetted and it was erroneous for the army to close them,” Mr Mbabaali told Daily Monitor on Tuesday.

FPU was formed by President Museveni in January 2017 to crack down on illegal fishing on Ugandan water bodies, which was blamed for the dwindling fish stock in the country. This has in the last couple of years seen fish stock, especially Nile perch, significantly multiply.

The landing sites
In Masaka District, out of the 18 landing sites, only six are operational. These include Lambu, Kachanga, Ddimo, Namirembe, Kaziru and Bbaale.

Some of the closed landing sites include Kafuga, Kisamba, Kyondo, Kisonzi, Mumpu and Mutemante - all in Buwunga Sub-county and Kyasa, Mumpu and Kakyukyu landing sites in Kyanamukaaka Sub-county.

Mr Mbabaali said the decision to close the landing sites has deprived many families of their livelihood without an easy alternative and some have become destitute.

“The landing sites were major sources of revenue for the district and we are at a point where we cannot even fund some of our planned activities,” he added.

This after some district departments, including the office of the Chief Administrative Officer and education department were evicted from Buganda Kingdom-owned land at Ssaza Village over non-payment of nominal ground rent amounting to Shs1b.

Districts leaders attribute the lack of funds to the closure of fish landing sites which were their major source of revenue.
The district used to collect about Shs1m from each landing site every month, and since 12 of them were closed, the district loses about Shs12m per month. This implies that the district has lost nearly Shs336m in the past 28 months.

Other businesses such as bars, shops, restaurants, and fuel stations which were also operating at the landing sites, also closed yet the district was generating revenue from them.

However, the FPU commander, Lt Col James Nuwagaba, said the closed landing sites were being used by unscrupulous fishermen to deplete the fish stock. He said the district leaders’ desire to raise revenue will not in any way force them to reopen the illegal landing sites.

He wondered why the district leaders are focusing on having the closed landing sites reopened rather than looking for other sources of revenue.

“Do they want to tell us that districts which don’t have landing sites cannot raise revenue? Let them admit that they have failed to run the district,” he said.

Mr Godfrey Ssenyonga Kambugu, the chairperson of the Association of Fishers and Lake Users of Uganda, supported Lt Col Nuwagaba’s position, saying it was still too early to reopen the landing sites.

“Some of those landing sites were also giving us headache, they lacked clear leadership and everything was in shambles. If the standards improve, we will talk to the army to reopen them,” he said.

Although the work of soldiers under FPU has been commended by a section of stakeholders in the fisheries sub-sector, many politicians and fishermen have criticised them over their high-handedness in dealing with people suspected of engaging in illegal fishing.

During FPU operations, people suspected of dealing in immature fish have been arrested and several ungazetted landing sites destroyed on the shores of lakes Victoria, Kyoga and Albert.

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