By Godfrey Olukya 24-3-2016
Tanzanian pirates on Lake Victoria which is shared by Uganda, Kenya and
Tanzanian are reportedly harassing Uganda fishermen by killing them and
looting their property especially boat engines.
In the last one year, the pirates have reportedly killed 10 Ugandans and
robbed over 200 boat engines from Uganda fishermen who are now appealing
for intervention from their government.
”We are often attacked by heavily armed Tanzanian pirates who beat us up
and if we try to resist them taking our property they shoot and kill us.”
said Ugandan fisherman Yusuf Lukwago.
He said that the mostly affected Uganda fishermen are those who operate
from islands not very far from the boarder with Tanzania. The fishermen who
have much suffered from the attacks are those on the islands of
Mazinga, Kuye, Nkose, Lujjabwa and Kikwiri all in the district of Kalangala
which made up of over 50 islands.
Chairman of Nkose Island, Stephen Kyeyune decried the continued attacks of
the pirates which he attributed to lack of security at water borders.
He said, ”Something must be done by our government to protect us from the
Tanzanian pirates. There is need to tighten security on the water
borders. The pirates easily come onto Uganda’s side of lake Victoria and
after robbing us they easily run back into their country.”
Another local leader, Ken Okoya said that the pirates mostly attack the
fishermen at night while they are fishing.
”They fire the guns in air and order the fishermen to lie in the boats
before they grab the boat engines and other property.” said Okoya.
Marine police officer, Mubarak Bwire said that they have received many
reports about such robberies but their hands are tied and they can not do
much currently.
Bwire said,” The lake is wide. We can not provide security to all the
boats. We have only two marine police boats in that area which cannot do
much in stopping the pirates.”
He however said that Uganda police has contacted their counterparts in
Tanzania several times about the Tanzanian pirates but nothing much has
been done.
Efforts to get comment from Tanzanian police have failed to bear results.
Lake Victoria is the second largest fresh water lake in the world. It is
located between the three east African countries namely Kenya Uganda and
Tanzania.
According to the boundaries in lake Victoria, Uganda shares the biggest part
of the lake followed by Tanzania and Kenya has the least.
