Minister rejects Kadaga’s plea on illegal fishing

PARLIAMENT- Government will not grant amnesty to illegal fishermen or release their confiscated fishing gear, the State Minister for Defence and Veterans Affairs, Mr Bright Rwamirama has said.

The minister was responding to Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, who had asked him to take a message to President Museveni to pardon fishermen who have been found in the wrong by the Fisheries Protection Force (FPF), a military wing deployed on the lakes to fight illegal fishing.
“Government has been giving amnesty to killers who have even been sentenced. Why don’t you just give the fishermen their confiscated gear? We ask you to take our proposal to the President,” Ms Kadaga said.

Parliament on Thursday and Wednesday debated the Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Committee report in which they said the FPF has indefinitely confiscated properties of arrested fishermen.

Mr Rwamirama said illegal fishermen have been killing soldiers carrying out patrols on the lakes.
“Amnesty is given to people who confess their sins. We have lost two men and an officer to illegal fishermen,” the minister said.
The soldiers were deployed on the lakes on President Museveni’s orders given during his campaigns for the 2016 elections.

However, this has caused uproar among the fishing communities who say they are mistreated in various ways including torture and shooting that have led to deaths.

During the State of the Nation Address last month, President Museveni bragged how the deployment of soldiers on the lakes has led to increment in fish stock.

“The fisheries sub-sector has through implementation of fisheries management reforms, registered increase by 31 per cent in Nile perch fish stock and the fishery is recovering on Lake Victoria. The support to fisheries enforcement interventions has led to the opening of four factories part of the 16 which had closed, bringing the total to 12 fish factories now in operation” Mr Museveni said.

The committee chaired by the Abim District Woman Member of Parliament, Ms Janet Grace Okori-Moe, alleged that the FPF deployed on lakes Victoria, George and Edward among others besides killing fishermen have also confiscated vehicles of the people found with premature fish.

During the debate, MPs said the soldiers do not give a chance to the people they find in the wrong to express themselves.
“When they are arrested, they are tortured and others are murdered,” Mr Henry Kibalya, the Bugabula South MP said.

On the finding that the FPF ignores the fisheries officers who are technically trained during the course of their operations, Mr Rwamirama said the Ministry of Defence has been encouraging Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that their staff work together with the soldiers.
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