Agriculture secretary Willy Bett (centre) with Fisheries PS Micheni
Ntiba (right) and James Njiru, the KEMFRI director this month. photo |
kevin odit
The government has acquired a Sh3.6
billion fishing patrol vessel from Bangladesh to curb illegal
exploitation of its resources in the Indian Ocean.
Agriculture
Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett said the vessel, which will be delivered
by June, will enable Kenya to deal with unlawful exploitation of its
special economic zone within the water resource.
He said the country’s marine has the potential of producing between 150,000 and 300,000 metric tonnes of fish every year.
Mr
Bett said the government wants to exploit its marine and fresh water
resources by investing in marine economy but faces challenges of illegal
fishing in its waters.
“We will be inspecting the
vessel next week in Bangladesh. The final stages of its completion will
be confirmed by next week after which it will be delivered,” he said in
Mombasa last week.
He added: “Thereafter we will
undertake the critical activity of patrolling our waters. The resources
within our territorial waters are meant to benefit our country and not
to be exploited by other nations.”
Speaking at the
Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) in Mombasa, Mr
Bett said operators of the vessel have been hired.
“Some of them are actually in Bangladesh where it is
being manufactured. They went there to understand the vessel and its
operation. Our next frontier is in the blue economy. We have already
restructured our ministries to include the blue economy owing to
unexploited marine and fresh water lakes,” he said
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