The price women pay for fish at Lake Victoria, Tingy [series like harry potter .txt] 📗

Lake Victoria known for the lucrative trade in fish has attracted many people from all walks of life. The indigenous people around the lake all depend on fishing trade and in this case the Luo tribe.
On my first visit to the Lake Victoria was in 1986, had just finished my high school and was staying in Kisumu town with my elder sister a waiting for my exams results. Then came a project Rural Domestic Water Supply and Sanitation program (RDWSSP) sponsored by the Dutch Government. I got a contract job for 1 month as a field officer in charge of collecting data on water evaluation in the villages along the Lake Victoria. It was quite challenging job having to walk between paths with bushes on either sides and also the fact that these places have dangerous snakes like python and in some cases leopards stretching on tree branches. But I did enjoy the part of interacting with the villagers that were warm welcoming me into their homestead and their persistence questions about my status in life (single or married). Being young and single woman then I received quite a number of offers to get married to their sons and all these conversation brought a lot to my attention especially on women’s participation in fish industry. One morning I took a walk along the lake sands where grass-marts are spread on the sands to dry up fish like salmon (Omena) in Luo language. Further a way from the beach sands sat women scaling off Tilapia fish (Gege) commonly found in Lake Victoria. I moved towards these women and greeting them in Luo” oyawore “ meaning Good morning and they all replied back “oyawore ahinya” meaning great morning. These women were quite energetic in their work and with much enthusiasm which charmed me so much. But what saddened me is some of these women having children tied on their backs bursting on scotching sun of Africa, and also some case the women having unborn baby. These woman Carry a child at her back and her belly protruding in-front with another pregnancy.
Life at the Lake seems to be busy in the morning with men pulling a way fishing nets from the waters and tying the boats at the edges. I started to engage myself in talking with these women slowly until the conversation was flowing smoothly, far a way from the work that took me to that part of the world, I became inquisitive about how these women go about the fish business and to my surprise these women were all answering my questions of which some of them reminding of past bad experiences they had before coming to fish business and even further bad experience they go through at the lake in the hands of some fishermen.
Rose, one of the women doing fish business at lake hails from a village called Seme Kombewa, she has been in this business for 2 yrs since her Husband died of HIV/ Aids. She was left behind with 6 children all in lower school and she has all responsibilities resting on her back. She moved to the lake side leaving her children behind with the grandmother to take of home and them while she sends money and visits them twice in a month. Rose a little shy woman speaks with shaky voice and sometimes tears rolling down her cheeks when telling her life story, but more saddening is her life at the Lake. Here women buy fish from fishermen in exchange of sex, the better the women are flexible on sex with these fishermen, fish business gets lucrative hence more income for the women. Sex for fish as the term itself poses danger of spread diseases like HIV/Aids, and other sexual transmitted diseases not forgetting to mention unwanted pregnancy.
Often for economic, political and social reasons, women and girls have less power in relationships and therefore not in a position to protect themselves against unwanted sex or even to gain information about reproductive health and rights.

HIV contributes to bigger proportion of the leading causes of mortality recorded in most health facilities. Most data on age specific mortality pyramid presents more frequently recorded deaths occurring between ages 24-49 years. This is a parental age cohort that leaves behind many parentless infants and children in modern society.

These children once they have remained on the hands of caretakers, most of them always find themselves in non-supportive hands. Observations have shown that the majority of these children are given slow indirect neglect by their current caretakers. In a family of many children, most parents tend to give first love and priority attention to their biological children than the orphans regardless of the age. Such neglect can easily be noticed during family feeding time, medical attention to sick orphan, educational needs or assets division and distribution.

Orphans lack equivalent parental care from their caretakers. Studies have shown some negative impacts of polygamous families on care for orphans at the household level. They are given a small proportion of the living-family love within few periods from the time of death of their parents. Later after a long while, the love for the orphans start diminishing as they grow to know that they are parentless.

Frustrations in life expectations and social sufferings make most orphans find themselves dropping out of school or ending up in street life. Some resorts to serious drug misuse in believe that they will stop thinking about their non-directional future and well being. Some not only find themselves in low paying high-powered manual work like working beer pubs along the lake Victoria, but also forced to early sexual practice for financial support, that expose them to sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AID, un planned pregnancy and early marriages.

Among the Luo tribe, early marriage is a common practice and more than half of all girls in the district enter marriage before their 20th birthday. Early marriage is higher in rural areas and in areas reporting lower levels of education. Because of rising numbers of orphans in Kisumu, many girls, with few alternatives, resort to early marriage. A survey conducted by Kenya Women Economic Network (KWEN) in Kisumu established that girls in the district who become pregnant while still in school opt for early marriage to avoid social stigma and punishment by parents.

The practice of polygamy is common in among the Luo Community, and contributes significantly to early marriage. Young girls are compelled to leave school in order to raise a family. This limits their education and negatively affects their economic development and general well-being. A couple of challenges have hampered promotion of the girl child’s right to education. In many African societies, parents are unwilling to spend much on a girl’s education as on a boy. This could be due to the perception of seeing the girl child role as that of a wife or mother. Parents living in poverty rely more on girls for help at home, so schooling carries a cost in lost chore time.


Around the lake, are small structures of iron-sheets and some wooded made to serve as beer pubs or restaurants with boarding and lodging rooms for visitors like traders from other towns and even countries like Tanzania and Uganda, and further Rwanda. These beer pubs and restaurants are serviced by young girls drop out from school due to lack of school fees or from HIV/Aids Orphaned children. Widows from around the lake also working in shifts in these pubs. I went up to one beer pub, sat at the table and ordered for a soft coca-cola. Beside me was a young man of age, approximately 30’s drinking a beer ( Tusker Bora) and I sent a smile across to me, oh that was not so hard…he sent back a smile and I asked him what is so good around the lake? He smiled and said to me, the good thing around the lake are the Uganda women who are so loyal and treat men with respect unlike Kenyan women. The Uganda women slight bend their knees in respect while they serve food to their men something that does not exist in Kenya women, I thought of that text being a Kenyan woman and somehow this man was telling truth, this must have been the tradition before modern woman and this bring us to the topic of gender equality

The vision of gender equality is far from being realized! To address the structural causes and consequences of poverty there must be an endeavour to tackle gender inequalities head on which requires carrying out a gender analysis of poverty. Over the last two decades, there has been increasing recognition of the significant role women play in socio-economic and political development of a society. However the full participation of women in development continues to be hampered by a number of obstacles.
The majority of rural women are economically poor. Luo culture does not allow them to own property especially land. Any resource the women own belongs to the husband. Traditions and culture do not allow women to participate fully in development and advocate for their rights. Despite women's large contribution to both family income and rural economy, they are faced with prohibitive cultural norms such as traditional division of labour, lack of access to land and resources, wife inheritance, exclusion of women in decision-making and restriction on family inheritance. This has had negatively impacts on the contribution of members of female gender as most of their time is spent on household chores thus jeopardizing their levels of economic well being and access to basic social services.

The achievements of gender equality and child rights are interlinked and these two rights are mutually reinforcing. Gender is not a woman-only or girl-only issue; it’s a development issue, a social justice issue and a human rights issue. Despite common misconceptions, inequality and discrimination on the basis of gender do not only occur in the cases of women and girls, but that men and boys can also be limited and excluded on the basis of their gender. It’s important to recognize that gender sensitive development means acknowledging that different sexes have different realities, constraints, potentials and aspirations, which we have to work with to design and develop programs that address their Particular needs in a way that will improve their lives.

Human beings are all subjects to the prejudices and cultural norms of the societies where we live. Power relations, cultural and social norms influence individual own thinking about his/her identities, how they interact with colleagues and how they implement programs. In this regard it’s very important for and communities to have a real understanding of what gender equality/equity means, and what are the constraints to achieving it.


During my field work as water evaluation officer around Lake Victoria, I learnt a lot about women’s work and usage of water. Women are the primary managers and users of water for domestic consumption and are responsible for family health and hygiene. While its important to note that women and girls have a vested interest in accessing safe water and hygiene/ sanitation systems, existing power relations, social norms and mobility mean that women and girls are often not consulted in planning community water systems and sanitation. It is interesting to note that men dominate water management committees at the expense of women. It is of paramount importance to include women /girls in the community decision-making processes for areas such as the location of boreholes, latrines and other facilities.

Despite women's large contribution to both family income and rural economy, they