It is 10years since Save Lamu filed case against LAPSSET, 4 years since the court ruled in favour of Lamu fishermen, 1 year 4 months since president Uhuru Kenyatta commissioned the operationalization of Lamu Port, 3 months since Lamu County Commissioner Irungu Macharia mentioned that Lamu fishermen to be compensated before elections on 9th August 2022, Again Lamu fishermen are still left in puzzle as they await compensation.
“Fishermen compensation is just around the corner” This has been the talk of town for the longest time possible, with Lamu Fishermen left in puzzle, the cat and rat game is growing each day as majority of fishermen are losing hope, there cry to the government to fasten the compensation process has landed on a deaf ear. In the year 2018, victory fell on Save Lamu and more on the fishermen to receive compensation of kshs. 1.76bn, but as day passed by, the victory slowly began to fade away, as majority of the fisher folk community are left in the middle of nowhere, denied fishing around the Lamu port area where they depended on getting a good catch enough to cater for their families and business as well.
Four years down the line since court ordered fishermen to be compensated, Save Lamu a community environment organization has been on the front line in fighting for fishermen’s rights through their legal partners Including Katiba Institute, Natural Justice, Heinrich Boll Stiftung not forgetting the AJWS. And recently Save Lamu embarked on a journey around Lamu County as far as Pate Island to the East to Mkunumbi all the way to Mokowe on the west side of Lamu, educating and taking the fishers through the consent and agreement of the LAPSSET judgement.
“Some of us have died, the only thing we are told is that we will soon be compensated, time is running we do not know about tomorrow” said Shee Abdallah Shemote a fisherman from Mokowe.
Many fishermen have died, some have grown old enough not being able to do fishing anymore; thus with the current high standard of living, a number of fishermen are forced to look for alternative ways of survival like doing farming, which is not doing so well because of the climate change crisis experienced globally.
“We highly depend on the sea for survival, life has become hard, we call on the government for a speedy compensation” said Hawa Ali, a fish seller at Mokowe.