Fishermen in Vanga area of Kwale County have raised concerns over continued harassment by the Tanzanian police force, following accusations that they are fishing on the Tanzania side of the Indian Ocean and using illegal fishing gear.
Speaking to KNA, the fishermen claimed that the constant bullying by the Tanzania security officers has become unbearable and they would like the government to intervene and set a trademark boundary that would end the dispute.
The Vanga community resides in a small village adjacent to the Kenya-Tanzania border in Kwale County, and their main source of livelihood is fishing and rice farming, which is done on a small scale.
Small-scale fish trading is a business that most women who cannot go to the ocean to fish have ventured into. However, the business has a tonne of challenges since the ocean they fish from is shared with neighbouring Tanzania, with the neighbours owning a big part of it.
Fishermen and the vendors have asked the government to intervene and set a boundary at the Indian Ocean in Vanga, claiming that the Tanzanian police force deployed at the sea to guard is brutal to Kenyan fishermen, who accidentally cross over to look for more fish.
One of the fishermen, Bwamrii Masha, recounted some ordeals when caught and found himself in the hands of Tanzanian officers, saying they were sometimes flogged, forced to eat raw fish or given punitive tasks to complete before they were set free.
Senior Chief, Kama Abdallah, from Vanga Location said the locality is safe in terms of criminal gangs, explaining that it has been long since they registered any insecurity case. However, he mentioned human trafficking and illegal trade from neighbouring countries as issues of concern, noting that drugs were also smuggled into the country.
Abdallah noted that cross-border relationships with neighbouring Tanzania need to be relooked and addressed adequately, emphasising the importance of collaboration, particularly in dealing with criminals, adding that some crooks could easily sneak into the country as a hideout after committing offences in their countries.
“We have a challenge as nine kilometres from Vanga Location is a Tanzania Police Unit who are manning the border. Our citizens have complained of harassment and sometimes their identity cards are confiscated when they present them for identification purposes. As the local government, we are working on a collaboration with our fellow leaders in Tanzania, but my plea is to have as many sittings as possible to tackle these issues and other emerging cross-border challenges,” he said.
He added that sometimes fishermen are forced to enter the Tanzanian side of the ocean to fish since fish could either be pushed to Kenya or Tanzania by monsoon winds and at the same time, they do not have identity documents thus ending up in problems when they are caught by the neighbouring security officers.
Abdallah said there is a challenge in the registration of fishermen, as there were 980 of them but only 450 have licenses.
Tanzanian Chairman Beach Management Unit, Shauri Athman, confirmed that Kenya fishermen have been arrested and punished based on the fishing mistakes they make at the Tanzanian side of the ocean.
Athman said the Tanzanian government has set aside some areas where fishing is prohibited to either fishermen from Tanzania or Kenya; however, he claims Kenyan fishermen still find ways to fish in those areas.
Chairman, Jasini Village in Tanzania bordering Vanga village in Kenya, Ali Suleiman, asked Kenyans to adhere to laws and regulations of the country to avoid being punished by the deployed forces.
Suleiman said that there is a 15-kilometre distance that is free to move for both Kenyans and Tanzania, with only a letter by the local authorities for day-to-day errands, but beyond the said landmark, one needs a passport.
“It is illegal to enter a foreign country without the required travel documents. We should not normalise some behaviours, but respect the law placed to govern a country,” he said.
Suleiman asked the local leadership to collaborate and work together in tackling the identified challenges, claiming Kenyan leaders are hard to cooperate with sometimes on matters of information sharing.
The Director of Grassroots Women Rights Centre (GWRRC) Vanga, Mwanatumu Kadau, said that as human rights defenders, they advocate for peaceful co-existence of the border community, thus the call to have local leaders from Jasini and Vanga villages discuss some of the pending challenges facing locals that undermine their co-existence.
“We are hopeful that if our people will support this peace initiative, we will get a lasting solution to the border disputes that fishermen and the general Vanga people are facing,” she said.
By Chari Suche
