More than 94 fish farmers from Ogal Beach in Kisumu have received fingerlings worth Sh2 million and fish feeds worth Sh1 million to help them restock.
The farmers are among those worst hit by the fish kill calamity last year.
Between the months of September and November last year, the Lake Victoria fisheries witnessed a rare and devastating death of fish along the beaches.
During that period, hundreds of thousands of fish in cages died, leaving the fisherfolk shocked, stranded and discouraged.
However, Tuesday, gave a ray of hope for the fish farmers after the county government carried out a distribution of fingerlings and fish feeds.
Governor Anyang Nyong’o said the fingerling support — a joint venture between the national and county governments will be used to out-scale the initiative to other beaches that were affected.
The loss due to fish kills within the county was estimated at Sh884.8 million.
The highest losses were experienced by Kentila Farms and Lake Aqua Limited, unfortunately, both are in Ogal beach.
Nyong'o noted that of the 8 landing beaches reported to have experienced fish kills in the county, Ogal had the highest number of cage farmers who were affected, accounting for 85% of the losses.
"We are working on policies that will improve the fish farming, especially aquaculture and Blue Economy in general. We take this opportunity to welcome all investors keen on the fishing subsector,"he said.
