Kenya: Fishing on Lake Turkana

Fr Denis blesses a new boat on Lake Turkana

Fr Denis Odongo from the St Paul's Missionary Community in Turkana, northwest Kenya, described an innovative new project which is helping a nomadic community survive and thrive in the face of severe drought, caused by climate change:

Lake Turkana formerly known as Lake Rudolf is a lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, in northern Kenya with its far northern end crossing into Ethiopia. It is the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest alkaline lake. The Lake sustains 60 species of fish which are much sought after by anglers, including tiger, cat and puffer fish, tilapia and Nile perch, also numerous in the lake are the Nile Crocodiles , which may have number in their thousands.

As the saying goes, "give a man fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime," the Missionary Community of Saint Paul has been striving to make fishermen out of the Turkana people living along the lake. This was prompted by the frequent droughts which made it more difficult to sustain their nomadic lifestyle. Fishing has never been part of their culture, there have been massive campaigns to convince them that "fish is also meat" since red meat is the most appreciated form of food.

Over the last twenty years the Turkana have embraced fishing as an important form of livelihood. The MCSPA were among the first organizations to build boats and bring in fishermen from other parts of Kenya to teach the Turkana how to fish, enjoy eating fish and trade in fish. Currently the local people are building their own boats, fish has become a delicacy for the villages along the Lake and many have embraced fishing as an important business venture. I was pleased to bless a boat of one of my parishioners a few days ago. This family is making all the efforts possible to be self reliant and create employment for others. This is an important way to uplift many families out of poverty. Turkana still suffers from periodic drought. This means that hunger is still a problem and many people lack employment opportunities due to the remoteness of some of the villages. It doesn't help that the area is semi-arid making many forms of livelihood difficult.

We hope that many more people will embrace fishing and trade in fish since Lake Turkana is a God given natural resource that is already changing the lives of many for the better and has a lot of potential to change the whole of Turkana if better taken advantage of.

The St Paul's Missionary Community is supported in the UK by New Ways. If you would like to find out more and DONATE to their work in Turkana, please see: www.justgiving.com/campaign/covid19Turkana