Six fishermen drown in Lake Kyoga

Serere, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Six fishermen are feared dead in Serere district after drowning during stormy weather on Wednesday night. The fishermen had sneaked into the lake with illegal fishing gears like seine nets in small boats when they drowned.

Those feared dead are Sam Okweny from Agule village, Moses Enyamu from Akumoi 2 village, Isaac Odongo from Akumoi 1 village-all in Pingire sub county and two others only identified as Ajalu and Otim from Omagara village in Kateta sub county in Serere district. The other fisherman identified as Charles Olupot alias Odipira is said to be from Amuria district.

Three fishermen namely James Elocu and Simon Okiring of Agule village in Pingire sub county and Sam Okello of Omagara in Kateta sub county were rescued. Tom Ojulu, the former Serere district youth chairperson who is involved in searching for the boat accident victims says that they have so far recovered the body of Sam Okweny.

He notes that the survivors were rescued by fishermen who went fishing on Thursday morning. “People here are still using illegal fishing gears. They enter the lake from different corners, not necessarily gazetted landing sites to access the lake. Even when the storm came, no one knew that there were people in the lake because fishing at night was banned,” he said.

James Elocu, one of the survivors told our reporter in a phone interview that they entered the lake at around 6:00 pm when there were no signs of bad weather. He explains that as soon as they started fishing, heavy rains accompanied by a storm started forcing them to seek refuge from the moving island.

In January, five fishermen mainly from Kadungulu sub county also drowned after entering the lake with small boats that were banned by the fisheries protection unit. Their death was blamed on corruption by government officials in the lake.

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