Between the Army and the Deep Blue Lake: Why Illegal Fishing Persists in Uganda Despite Military Deployment

For countless generations, fishers have toiled on the shores of Lake Nalubaale, also known as Lake Victoria, seeking the day’s catch. 

This mid-morning in October 2023 appeared no different. At Kasensero landing site in Rakai District, not far from Uganda’s border with Tanzania, a crew of 15 men heaved an eight-meter long, wooden blue and green boat, with an outboard motor, from the water onto the beach.

Fish producers such as these form the backbone of a lucrative trade that, just six years ago, was the second-highest-earning export among agricultural commodities after coffee, according to the country’s third National Development Plan.

At the time, fish and fish products were responsible for about six percent of Uganda’s export earnings, majorly sourced from Lake Victoria, the country’s largest water body that it shares with neighboring countries Kenya and Tanzania. But by June 2023, according to data from the Uganda Revenue Authority, Nile Perch exports had dropped to eighth place in commercial value, and commodities such as coffee, cocoa and wheat were more lucrative sources of export revenue for Uganda.

This is indicative of a decline in fish exports driven by illegal fishing that has persisted in the country despite years of attempts to curb it.

According to the 2023 Uganda Auditor General’s report, 25 percent of all fishing gear on Lake Victoria is illegal.

Kakembo Hakim, the chair of the Kasensero committee against illegal fishing, reveals how steeped the Kasensero landing site is in the vice.

“This landing site began as a base for illegal fishing,” said Kakembo, who has fished these waters for the past 25 years. “In response to the government’s crackdown, fisherfolk are changing, but it is not easy to change a way of life.”

The use of illegal gear on the giant freshwater lake has tripled over the last 20 years. By 2021, about 30 percent of gillnets had either mesh sizes that were smaller than the legal minimum size or were constructed from synthetic ‘monofilament’ fibres – both of which are prohibited due to their ability to catch juvenile fish, according to a Nile Perch Fisheries Management Plan of the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization, an institution of the East African Community that coordinates the management and development of fisheries resources in the region.

This is despite the presence of the military on the lake to enforce legal fishing practices. High costs both of legal fishing gear and of military surveillance, along with the increasing demand for immature fish in the region, continue to drive illegal fishing practices in Lake Victoria and its environs.

Hakim reckons that illegal fishing appeals to fisherfolk due to a perception that it is cheap and brings in quick money, despite the risks.

Military redeployment rife with corruption concerns

Data from the Uganda Prisons Services indicates that the number of convicts completing sentences for illegal fishing spiked in 2021/22, but decreased in 2022/23.

The adoption of plea bargaining to reduce case backlog in the judiciary per the 2019/20 Ministerial Policy Statement of the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs partly accounts for the temporary increase in convictions.

Operations by the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) Fisheries Protection Unit – the arm of the Uganda army mandated to enforce legal fishing began in 2017 and have continued, despite the unit’s suspension by Parliament in 2019 over allegations of human rights abuses and the repeated failure of the executive arm of government to respond comprehensively to these concerns raised periodically on the floor of Parliament.

In fact, FPU enforcement operations intensified, for instance in the 2021/22 fiscal year 1,035 enforcement operations were conducted.

This militarized enforcement regime contrasts with fishing communities’ traditional symbiotic relationship with the water body, an important part of local cultures and religion.

“The lake is protected by Mukasa the god,” said Musoke Rashid, a local fish trader in Kasensero. “Historically, there were no guns on the lake, but now everywhere you go there are guns.”

But according to Fred Kwizera, the chairperson of Kasensero landing site, military enforcement has lapsed over the years “because of Ugandan politics,” allowing the resurgence of illegal fishing.

Such proponents of military-led fisheries management in Uganda have had to contend with the unsustainably costly nature of an approach that is prone to escalating violent conflicts.

Initially deployed in February 2017 and signalling a move away from the local-level fisheries co-management regime, which was perceived as corrupt and ineffective in curbing illegal fishing, the UPDF Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) was dogged by allegations of violence and rights abuses that led to its suspension by Parliament in 2019.

Speaking at a town hall meeting convened by Wizarts Foundation in Kalangala district in December 2018, Captain Nathan Abaho of the FPU said the unit’s alleged highhanded approach was in response to violence by offenders.

“I would request the organizers of this meeting to also take it to the forest where the targeted suspects are hiding. Just imagine I, Captain Nathan Abaho, introducing myself before a suspect who is having a mask on his face, holding a spear in his hand and a panga, and above all threatening violence. What do you do with that person? We should stop joking.”

According to data downloaded from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which tracks data on conflicts around the world, fish-related conflicts have generally increased in Uganda in the last decade, with a high in 2021. Violence against civilians accounted for almost half of the cases.

Under a new chain of command, the Fisheries Protection Unit undertook 540 enforcement operations per the Agriculture Ministry’s vote performance report for the first quarter of the financial year 2022/23, a 47.8% decrease from the previous year and the lowest since the 2020/21 fiscal year.

It is in this context that registered cases of fish-related crimes in the islands rose or declined in proportion to the intensity of the enforcement operations on the lakes. For instance, court data from the Chief Magistrates Court in Kalangala, Uganda’s islands district, shows that the number of cases registered increased from just 31 cases in 2019 to 390 in 2022.

However, in nine other courts mostly located near water bodies in Uganda, illegal fishing cases have generally declined from a high in 2019, though they rose again slightly in 2021, mirroring the intensity of the enforcement operations by FPU in this period.

A longtime resident of Kalangala named Katongole (only name provided), has observed the impact of the military presence on the lake over the years.

“Initially the army was deployed at a time when the fish stocks were really low. Subsequently, due to the clampdown on illegal fishing, the fish stocks recovered,” he said.

However, in the first four years of the military intervention, high costs of this surveillance, especially fuel to power the army’s boats, gradually reduced the intensity of FPU operations, as per a 2023 study by the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute that cites interviews with eight senior commanders of the FPU.

As such, sustaining the latest FPU intervention and its gains presents a familiar challenge that has impacted earlier government interventions to regulate fishing in Lake Victoria. In the past, due to low pay, “state agents have looked at fisherfolk as an extra source of income, food and fuel,” Charles Asowa-Okwe asserted in his 1994 study, ‘Capital and Conditions of Fisher Labourers on Lakes Kyoga and Victoria Canoe Fisheries.’

Such extortion speaks to recent encounters that Ssenyonga Joseph, a fisherman in Kasensero, has had with the FPU on the lake.

”They didn’t deploy the army on the lake for conservation purposes; they came to plunder. When they catch you with immature fish, they confiscate it and thereafter sell it off,” Ssenyonga said.

Ssenyonga’s account is echoed by another fisherman in Kalangala, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his safety.

”When they arrest you for illegal fishing, they can ask for 120 litres of fuel, which they have used to bring you in,” this fisherman said.

Although some local residents insisted the military presence on the lake was a crime deterrent, others, such as Nakimbugwe, a food seller at Kasensero (only name provided), challenged this view due to the FPU’s anaemic response to a recent spate of criminal activity at the site.

“People report stolen boat engines and call for help, but they say, 'We can’t come, we don’t have fuel.' But doesn’t the government that deployed not pay them?” Nakimbugwe said.

Ssemakula Afumba, the chairperson of the Local Council 5 in Kalangala, said some officials collect bribes from fishers to sustain their operations.

”Typically those who are arrested are the poor with no means to pay for their freedom,” he said. “The well-to-do have options. One can call the arresting officer and negotiate the release of his workers. Two, one can call the barracks and ask for the release of his workers; in exchange, one is asked to buy fuel worth 3-4 million shillings. The poor can’t afford to buy this fuel. They can even ask for 1,000 litres or even 500 litres. This is the fuel they use for their operations, though one would expect the government to provide this and not the enforcement officers. If the enforcement officers have to source their own fuel, it means they are like traders, you aren’t paying them well so they will look to fend for themselves.”

Lt. Col Lauben Ndifula, spokesperson for the FPU, denies these allegations and attributes them to the smears of illegal fishers who have been caught on the wrong side of the law. Further, in the event a soldier is implicated in extortion or soliciting bribes from fishers, that officer is held accountable.

“They will send a team on the ground to do an investigation and once that is found to be true that person will be punished. And the fishers at the landing sites have the contents of the CO [Commanding Officer], they can call her direct. ”

Majority of illegal fishing court cases dismissed

Kwesiga Eva, the resident district commissioner of Kalangala District, suggested that recent changes in the command of FPU sought to address community concerns about the military’s approach to law enforcement on the lake. In November, President Museveni appointed Lt. Col. Mercy Tukahirwa to replace Lt. Col. Dick Kaija as head of the unit.

“The fisherfolk decried the fact that there was no equality before the law, and they were right. So I want to thank President Museveni for changing the chain of command on the lake; we now have Lt. Col. Mercy,” Kwesiga said.

Still, many fishers remain wary of militarized law enforcement. One fisherman in Kalangala, who preferred anonymity to protect his safety, said that this past year, the previous commander made numerous arrests, mainly poor people. This fisherman said Tukahirwa is now trying to arrest the big players, but there is skepticism that she will achieve much, as the big players have ties to the government.

Data tracking about 1,500 court cases registered in nine local courts from 2018 to 2023 that we obtained from the court data registry reveals that the rate of convictions for illegal fishing, mostly fishing with illegal nets and catching immature fish, was about 58 percent in 2021, reducing to 36 percent in 2022 and further to 16 percent in 2023.

At the same time, the rate of cases dismissed increased from 25 percent in 2021 to 76 percent in 2023 – the vast majority in Koome court, one of the courts in the islands. A significant number of these cases were dismissed due to a lack of prosecution.

This data represents less than half of overall fish-related court cases in Uganda over this period, however, as specific case data from courts including Kalangala and the Standards, Utilities and Wildlife Court was not provided by the time of publishing.

However, overall statistics from the Standards, Utilities and Wildlife Court based in Kampala shows that 86 percent of the court’s 1,606 cases registered ended in convictions: a much higher conviction rate than at local lakeside courts including Koome, Lake Katwe, Lukaya and Nakasongola.  

A fisherman in Kalangala, who preferred anonymity, recounted his experiences of this criminal justice system.

”I used to be a fisherman and owned two boats which were confiscated and burnt. I was also arrested for three years. They found me with illegal fishing nets. First they detained me at Central Police Station Kampala for nine months. When I returned and started fishing, I was arrested again and detained at Lukaya for six months. That is how I lost everything,” he said.

In 2022, Uganda passed a new Fisheries and Aquaculture Act that installed more stringent penalties for illegal fishing.

Section 96(6a) of this Act stipulates that any person who manufactures, sells, imports or stocks illegal gear including nets with prohibited mesh sizes is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding UGX 20 million (USD $5,300) or to imprisonment not exceeding three years or both.

Between 2021 and 2023, average fine amounts for fish-related crimes more than doubled, according to InfoNile analysis of court data. But the number of fines given decreased by more than 40 percent in 2022, and the average prison sentence (about four to six months) did not change significantly since the law was passed.

According to the 2023 Auditor General’s report, limited funding, vehicles, propeller engines, standard boats and understaffing limit the acquisition and collection of adequate evidence for prosecution, which results in delayed commencement of court proceedings.

The audit recommended increased allocation of funds to facilitate the investigation of fish-related crimes. 

Illegal cross-border trade and theft up

It is against this background that reports of cross-border crime, and in particular the theft of boat engines, remain a major concern, as Fred Kwizera recounts.

“Because we are at the border with Tanzania, robbers from Tanzania target us. They rob our boat engines, nets, but mainly engines. An engine costs shs. 9 million [shillings] (USD $2,375) but a thief can steal 10 of those at once and flee,” he said.

Lugadya William, the vice chairman of Kasensero landing site, said at least 25 engines have been stolen in 2024 alone.

“This is not a new phenomenon. I have been here 20 years and engines have always been stolen. […] The thieves are from Tanzania. [….] They don’t use arms, rather sticks and pangas and take our engines,” he said.

These accounts were difficult to verify, as official records are scanty. Further, consultations with the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute and Tanzania Fishermen Association in Mwanza were inconclusive.

The theft of engines has come to the attention of Kwesiga Eva, the Kalangala RDC, as it lays bare the deficiencies of law enforcement agencies in Uganda amidst reprisals from across the border.

“The issue with the Uganda Marine Unit of Police – they also have had run-ins with the Fisheries Protection Unit – is they confiscate the catch of Tanzania fisherfolk found in Ugandan waters and in retaliation the Tanzanians steal our engines,” she said.

The Marine Unit serves under the Uganda Police Force, whereas the Fisheries Protection Unit serves under the military – the Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces. Police patrol the land and water enforcing regulations, apprehending suspects of illegal fishing and providing security on the lake. However, since 2017, the FPU has largely usurped the police’s mandate.

The lucrative cross-border trade in immature fish in spite of the military presence on the lake further points at weak enforcement, according to Fred Kwizera, the chairperson of Kasensero landing site.

“There is a net called a monofilament net, which is locally known as ‘manyala.’ It is made in China. But weak enforcement by Uganda means it is imported and sold and used to catch immature fish called makayabu, which go to DRC. One kilo costs shs. 2,000. Five to six such fish make a kilo,” he said.

Our colleagues in DRC reveal that immature Nile Perch, which is also known as kikwara, is a household delicacy in Kivu and many other parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is consumed by all social classes and the price ranges from USD $1 to $10. Uganda is a major supplier of immature fish to DRC.

”They cut makayabu, salt it, then load it on a Fuso truck. They take a truck with 10 tonnes to DRC,” Kwizera adds.

The data on this trade is scanty, and likely trade volumes are under-reported to evade the authorities, although collusion cannot be ruled out.

”It must be said that without connections with the government, no one is able to take such fish to DRC,” Kwizera asserted.

The lack of harmony in the legal framework concerning the management of fisheries resources in the East African region enables the trade of immature fish, Lt. Lauben Ndifula, spokesperson for the Fisheries Protection Unit asserts.

“You find Tanzania, Kenya, they have different laws compared to our country Uganda. You may find another country like DRC where immature fish is allowed; then here it is not allowed.”

The demand for immature fish is not restricted to DRC as the local market in Uganda is also substantial, particularly among low-income households, said Ssekindu Hassan, a fisherman at Kasensero.

“They should let us, the poor, use the 5- and 4.5-inch nets [114-127 millimeters] that we can afford; then we can make a living, because there is a lot of demand. Otherwise, fish is for the rich and the poor can’t afford to eat it,” he said.

Dr. Winnie Nkalubo, the director of research at the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute, clarified why legal nets must have a minimum hole size of seven inches, which are used to catch Nile Perch of about 50-85 centimetres in length.

“Science tells us that by the time it is 50 centimetres in length, the fish has laid some eggs. Why not above 85? Because such larger fish lay the eggs that replenish the fish stock.”

Misinformation contributes to a lack of awareness by fishermen of the scientific reasons why they should not catch young fish. Fisher Ssenyonga Joseph remains unconvinced that harvesting immature Nile Perch compromises the replenishing of the fish stock.

“Tanzanians prefer to catch immature fish in Ugandan waters because it is the mature ones that reproduce, and yet here the immature ones are not to be touched. What will produce the young?” he said.

Continued availability of imported illegal nets brings questions

Between 2016 and 2020, there was a significant decline in the use of illegal fishing gear in Uganda, notably a 50 percent decline in the use of monofilament gillnets as per the 2023 Auditor General’s report, which attributes this improvement to the redeployment of the FPU.

However, a reversal of these gains is highly likely due to the fact that manyala nets, as they are also known, are low cost and easy to replace, as per a 2023 study by the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute.

Sentamu Yasin, chairperson of Kasensero Kagera, Cell 10 reckoned that the low capital outlay and quick return on investment put these illegal nets in high demand. 

Demand for illegal nets like manyala is due in a large part to the fact that they are affordable substitutes to the legal nets that are too expensive for fishermen like Jjuko Steven in Kalangala.

“The government should lower the taxes on legal nets to make them more affordable because they are too costly, so illegal fishing persists,” he said. “A legal net costs 125,000 -150,000 shs. (USD $33-40). Yet more affordable illegal nets like manyala are still on the market.” According to Yasin, illegal nets can be sold for as little as one fifth of the legal nets.

Fishing gear in Uganda is largely imported. Fishing nets, for example, are typically imported from China, according to data from UN Comtrade, the United Nations global trade data platform. Once, fishing gear was locally made by artisans, but it started being largely imported when the colonial government commercialized fish production for the global market.

According to UN Comtrade, Uganda’s official imports of HS Code 560811 (“Twine, cordage or rope; fishing nets, made up of man made textile materials”) have decreased from a high in 2017.

But official data on illegal products is questionable. The 2023 Auditor General report also finds there is inadequate control of the influx of illegal gear due to poor coordination between the Fisheries Protection Unit, Uganda Revenue Authority and local governments. Lt. Lauben Ndifula, spokesperson for the Fisheries Protection Unit attributes this phenomenon to profiteering on the part of the local business community.

“We still have those businessmen who have a personal interest, to smuggle the illegalities into our country. And because they [nylon monofilament nets] are cheap, the fishing community yearn to buy those cheap nets.”

“In Bugolobi, I witnessed bales of illegal fishing nets being stocked. How do they enter the country? Under the noses of URA?” said Kwesiga Eva, alluding to the challenges the Uganda Revenue Authority faces in enforcing regulations against the import of illegal nets given the porous borders.

The cloak and dagger trade in illegal fishing nets is shrouded in secrecy and intrigue, as Ssemakula Rajab, a local fisher, reveals.

“That illegal net can’t be bought by any ordinary person. If I showed where to get it, you still would not get it,” he said. “Only a person involved in illegal fishing can get you access, and they will ask you for money, tell you to wait because it is not there in the shop. Suddenly someone on a boda [motorcycle] will appear and hand you a kaveera [plastic bag]. Then you will return to the landing site, and you will pay your leaders for permission to cast the net in the lake. This doesn’t stop them from confiscating it later, and you can’t report it.”

Ssemakula believes the trade in illegal fish is organized to exploit the fishers.

”Who knows where the illegal nets come from. Here, we have soldiers ready to confiscate them and burn them. Why don’t they concentrate their efforts on the borders where these illegal nets enter the country? We know who imports these nets. What if it’s a conspiracy to impoverish you, fisherfolk? The one who imports the illegal nets is making money. He brings in the stock you buy. These are confiscated and burnt and the cycle repeats itself,” he said.

In his book, Asowa-Okwe argued that the commercialization of fish production by the colonial government and continuation of this economy by successive post-colonial governments undermined traditional artisanal fish production, creating a class divide between fishers who could own the means of production, such as legal boats and fishing gear, and those who hired out their labour to this capitalist class.

The hired labourers invariably remain impoverished and exploited in this system, given their negligible share of the profits from their labour. In this context, quick gains from illegal fishing are hard to turn down, Asowa-Okwe wrote.

Kwesiga Eva recounted a time when she received calls from fisherfolk detained at the Buganda Road Central Police Station.

“It was Sunday 2 p.m., yet they had not eaten since Friday when they had been taken into custody. I arrived there on Monday to find they were lumpens. They were hired to work for someone else, who they named, so I asked, ‘Why weren’t these named persons called to give statements as they own the boats and the nets?’” the civil servant said.

Three quarters of vessels and fishers in the 13 districts of Lake Victoria are still unlicensed despite FPU law enforcement operations, per the 2023 Auditor General’s report.

Licenses are issued in the names of boat owners rather than the fishers they hire to work on the boats. Consequently, when the fishers commit offences, they can simply switch boats and elude capture, and in this way, repeat offenders go unchecked.

The exploitation of fishers is compounded by the fishers’ inability to organize collectively, unlike the capitalist class that owns the means of production. Current attempts to organize through groups like the Association of Fishers and Lake Users of Uganda (AFALU), a civil society group that was consulted on the Fisheries Act 2022, are not without contradictions, as Kwesiga Eva explains.

“We have AFALU; they hide behind collaborating with the army for the greater good yet they are actually destructive themselves. I have written to them directing that they should no longer operate in Kalangala soliciting money from fisherfolk,” she said.

In response, a source from AFALU denied any wrongdoing and are committed to representing the interests of its more than 10,900 subscribing members comprising boat owners and fishers commonly known as baria, in the management of fisheries resources. As such, AFALU is seeking a swift resolution to the spat with the RDC of Kalangala.

Amid the struggles, some local communities in Kasensero and Kalangala are increasingly abandoning fishing for maize farming, which is less capital intensive.

This trend is likely to continue provided remedies to the issues in the fishing industry are not prioritized. One such solution proposed by the Auditor General could be an import substitution strategy for fishing gear that is premised on government support for local producers to manufacture affordable legal gear and discourage illegal gear use.

Ms. Omara, a trader in Kalangala (only name provided), is puzzled by the lack of government interventions aimed at fishers.

”Why doesn’t the government invest in the fisherfolk? Through the local leaders, identify the fisherfolk and give them legal fishing nets. People will abandon illegal fishing. Otherwise, right now, there are little to no prospects for those of us who make a living on the lake,” she said.

Annika McGinnis / InfoNile contributed to the analysis of the Uganda courts data.