WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2014

Uganda, Kenya scuffle over Migingo again; Ah, we had forgotten that one

PHOTO | FILE Fishermen setting out to catch fish in Migingo Island in Lake Victoria recently. Fifteen Kenyans were on May 24, 2014 injured during a fight with their Ugandan counterparts.

PHOTO | FILE Fishermen setting out to catch fish in Migingo Island in Lake Victoria recently. Fifteen Kenyans were on May 24, 2014 injured during a fight with their Ugandan counterparts.   NATION

In Summary

  • Fishermen do understand that there is a border in Lake Victoria waters. But they also know that the fish don't have passports.
  • Every so often you hear stories of Kenyan fishermen arrested fishing illegally in Tanzania's portion of Lake Victoria. You never hear about fishing boat thieves being arrested.

Yesterday, a story in Uganda's Daily Monitor caught my eye. It was entitled "Uganda, Kenya police officers in shootout at Migingo Island".

Yes, sparring between Uganda and Kenya over that rocky island, which is the size of a big village, is still going on. The Uganda police deny there was any shooting, only a scuffle of some sort.

In summary, the story went like this: The Uganda police found a Kenyan with Yamaha and Suzuki boat engines.

Since Kenyan authorities don't permit the sale of those types of engines, the Ugandans concluded that he could only have stolen them. Things went downhill very quickly from there.

Part of this story is about that niggling dispute over Migingo. Both Ugandan and Kenyan politicians have said some funny and hurtful things over Migingo.

My favourite, is also the one that many consider the most ridiculous. It came from Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, who said the island belongs to Kenya, but the fish and water belong to Uganda.

People never stopped laughing, but the man had a point.

He was thinking almost like a fisherman. Fishermen do understand that there is a border in Lake Victoria waters. But they also know that the fish don't have passports.

You can claim the water, but not the fish — they are stateless creatures that move around freely in total disregard of borders. And fishermen don't go by our logic. So my interest today is not the island, the fish, the water, but the fishermen.

"EARLY ADAPTORS"

Some years ago you will recall, the leaders of the East African Community decided that they wanted to speed up a political federation.

However, some EAC members, notably Tanzania, thought the time was not right, and that the matter should be tested, so committee was set up to go around asking East Africans what they thought of the matter.

When the committee spoke to the fishermen, they heard the same message: They were told that the politicians were behind the times; that the thieves who steal their fishing boats and nets had already federated.

A boat stolen in Kisumu, for example, was quickly taken to Mwanza in Tanzania and sold there. A boat stolen in Mwanza was taken to landing sites in Uganda. And boats stolen in Uganda were brought and sold in Kisumu. The criminals are early adaptors in matters of regional integration. Marxists would call them the vanguard.
Every so often you hear stories of Kenyan fishermen arrested fishing illegally in Tanzania's portion of Lake Victoria. You never hear about fishing boat thieves being arrested.

You would, therefore, think that the fishermen want the authorities to police the waters more strictly. No, you and I would think like that. They want freedom of movement and fishing over all of the lake because if a Kenyan fisherman from Kisumu could fish freely up to Mwanza, then he would be able to see that it was his stolen boat on sale in Mwanza.

FISHERMEN ARE SUPERSTITIOUS

In other words, they wanted the same opportunities as the criminals. Very asymmetrical thinking.

Fishermen are superstitious. Some years ago, I took a trip to a fishing island deep in Lake Victoria. There are no women on the island because, the fishermen believe, women bring "bad luck".

We left as the night approached, and I was mesmerised watching the chaps navigating around the dangerous rocks in Lake Victoria using the stars!

It was a boat, not a yacht, so there were no toilets. When the fishermen wanted to take a short call, they would just stand at the edge of the boat and do their thing.

Not knowing the ways of the fishermen and travel on the lake, I had sat in the wrong part of the boat. It was a windy night, so their urine would be blown back and splash all over me.

I was in desperate need of a bath by the time we reached the island. Let me just say a fishing island, full of drunken fishermen, is not a place for the faint of heart.

To appreciate the Migingo issue, you have to hang out with fishermen. They have their own laws.

The problem with Migingo is that Uganda and Kenya took there police officers and soldiers, symbols of authority that just get in the way of fishermen — the state.

Mr Onyango-Obbo is editor of Mail & Guardian Africa. (mgafrica.com). Twitter: @cobbo3