On the 6th of May 2022, we set out to one of the farthest towns in Luo South Nyanza, Kenya. Tucked on the east of Africa’s largest lake and the world’s largest tropical lake, Lake Victoria, is Rusinga Island. A quiet, rich and serene village.
A few banners and billboards of political aspirants were strategically aligned on our way to the cross bridge, as it was yet another election period for Kenya. It was a journey of about 10 hours by bus, quite a stretch but we were excited to be here.
A few cows mow some playful goats crisscross the road as they enjoy their fodder beside the road. The greenery, fresh air and a few passersby carrying away fish to make their staple delicacy cannot go unnoticed. The seasonal lake flies clouded our vision, ignorant of our naivety to navigate our way through them. “You have to be careful with them, they are very painful on entry to your eyes” warns Dan, our area point man as he skillfully navigates his motorbike through this cloud of flies. Terrifying, to say the least. But soon after the sun was high up in the sky, they disappeared.
Our first stop was Sienga beach at about 8.00 am. Groups of people were gathered around a few boats finalising the trade of the popular silver fish, Nile perch and a few tilapia fish. Soon after, they all scattered in different directions. Those living around the beach dry the fish there and a few others boil them as fresh as they are for their next meal. It is a popular delicacy here, you cannot afford to miss it.
In a couple of minutes the beach area is clear, save for a few children playing around. The clear lake waters had receded as they calmly kissed the shores. Dotted by the peculiar white egret birds and some chuckling Egyptian geese that gracefully waded as they basked under the glorious sun. In their majestic splendour, the egrets flew by only to patch on a docked boat, or a nearby tree; a few others walked by the shores.
This was a site pre visit before the actual community EveryDayNile exhibition. A follow up of an award winning story by Anthony Ochieng aka Tony Wild on “Powering the Ghost Town of Rusinga”.
It felt so fresh, so surreal. Some clean air at last, cool breeze from the lake and a great scenery. Mfangano Island and Bird’s Island lay on the horizon. Some locals carry their laundry and utensils to clean by the shores. A few others take baths unperturbed by the public display of their wares as their fellows swim in their birthday suits. It is a norm, no one cares to look or gaze in amazement. It is their reality. It must be great living here! We took a few pictures of ourselves and the environs. Rusinga is Shangri La to say the least.
A couple of residents stop to say “hi” wearing their beautiful smiles and offering as much information as possible. They probed politely to establish our objective here. We made it known to them that we are accomplices in their new endeavour to go green, go climate smart and save planet earth. Obviously unaware of what exactly we meant, they continued to engage us. “We love visitors, Rusinga is a safe and peaceful community. We are happy you came to visit us.”
We quickly set out our stands and pictures, in a bid to establish the most ideal placement, sitting arrangement and the nitty gritty of the actual event. After a satisfactory analysis of the venue, permission from the local area leaders, logistics and entertainment, we left to prepare for the PhotoExhibition at Rusinga Island, a 3day event, from 19th – 22nd June.
About The ‘Ghost Town’ of Rusinga
Rusinga Island is one of the many islands along the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria, shared by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Over the years, locals enjoy the majestic view of the lake during the day but when the sun sets, the lake comes to life in a whole new form. The glowing bulbs appear to represent a town in the distance for a first-time visitor to the island – but in the morning, this town is nowhere to be seen. Thus the ‘Ghost Town.’
The sea of lights is a result of fishing the delicious Silver Cyprinid locally known as Omena by the locals. They stay close to the bottom at daytime and rise upward at night. They are attracted to light and only fished during the darkest nights. Today, most fishermen use solar-powered lamps to fish.
While fishing is hugely important for people’s livelihood on the island, this sector is especially impacted by climate change. Increased water levels of Lake Victoria, increases in temperature, and changes in rainfall patterns – combined with overfishing and ongoing pollution of the lake, significantly affect the fish species. Most of the freshwater fish species native to the Lake Victoria basin are endangered, critically endangered, or extinct, according to the IUCN.
Fishing livelihoods are also under threat because of unsustainable fishing practices such as overfishing, destructive fishing methods, pollution from fish farms and use of non-renewable energy in the industry. Climate-smart practices can help reverse this.
“I was walking by the beach one evening when I saw a group of fishermen setting up for a fishing expedition. What struck me was their use of solar lamps as opposed to kerosene lamps that I grew up watching them use,” explained Tony. He had realised the ghost town lights were no longer yellow like he had witnessed as a child; they had slowly shifted to white light, but this never meant much to him. His realisation of the ecofriendly switch was an absolute amazement.
He wanted to document this story and thus applied for an InfoNile grant with support from IHE Delft Water and Development Partnership Programme in 2021. The objective of the grant was to support 10 journalists from nine Nile Basin countries to document everyday life water stories published under the hashtag #EverydayNile. In his photo story, Anthony documented the climate smart transition of fishermen and locals from kerosene and pressure lamps to solar lamps for fishing and domestic use.
The Exhibition
After our pre-visit, we set foot at Sienga beach one week later. Armed with 22 photos from Anthony’s photo story with captions both in English and Dholuo, the local dialect. We quickly and skilfully set up the photo stands right from the introductory text to the pictures in chronological order. A few locals offered to help. “Let me help you carry this. Where should I fix it? You know as Luos we love taking care of our women. You should not get tired this early,” said Obwogo as he steadily shuffled between the exhibition area.
Obviously aware and expectant of our return from both online and physical publicity campaigns, the community welcomed us with open hands. Brilliant, joyful and delighted, they walked through the pictures enchanted by the faces of their very own in the pictures. “Nyakandito! Bernard! Odhiambo! So sad Nyakandito is not present to witness this.” They civilly walked around the photo stands as they read through the captions with excitement on their faces. We were made aware that despite having translations to Dholuo, the majority are literate, and understood the captions in English.
A fisherman explaining the photo. First paragraph is in English, second is translated to Dholuo
The launch officially began at 11 am, about ninety people rushed to get a seat under the tent. We set out to officially state our mission here and why it was commendable for them to adopt solar power. We explained what climate meant and how its changes are affecting us today. The increased floods, drought, water scarcity, heat waves and rising sea levels among others. “We are here to learn from the fishing community of Rusinga Island, on how we can adapt to climate change. ”said Alis Okonji, Infonile’s Communications Lead.
Philemon Agwanga, the area assistant chief broke it down further by reverting to a recent incident where the beach area was flooded affecting the families that lived nearby. The beach management office was also destroyed and now it lies in ruins only a few years after its establishment. “You might view it as a convenient measure but solar lamps do not harm the environment unlike kerosene,” he asserted.
“I wanted to tell a story of how my community is contributing to climate action. The use of solar lamps is good for the community and good for the environment.” said Anthony Ochieng amidst a smile. At the height of the event he presented framed pictures to those featured in the photo story. The audience watched in admiration as the owners picked them.
Community Engagement
The community went around identifying pictures and describing what they meant to them and how the pictures made them feel. A majority did it. Thoroughly explaining what this shift means to them. A few were still traumatised by the scars caused by burns from kerosene and pressure lamps in the past.
Rodgers, a fisherman, carefully listened to the individual speeches and also volunteered to share his ugly encounter. He narrated how he sustained serious burns and had to recuperate for six months.
“Solar lamps are not only resilient to bad weather, cheap, efficient and durable but they are also very safe. I would have died. Thanks to solar, many lives are safe now.”
Rodgers, local fisherman
In light of their recent transition to electric engines to steer their boats, locals hailed this as a cheaper option considering the recent hike in fuel prices.
“Our grandparents used kerosene and pressure lamps. It had lots of challenges and sometimes you had to end your fishing expedition too early with minimal catch once you ran out of fuel.” Mike Kepha, a fisherman, passionately explains.
He continues to expound that pressure lamps are also expensive to buy. One goes about 6000 KSh (58 USD) yet you need at least six in the boat. Moreover, they are quite pricey to maintain as you need to regularly buy wicks and paraffin. They are difficult to light, smokey exposing them to poisonous fumes, less durable, difficult to get spare parts and need extra caution since they can easily blow up.
“As thousands of boats go out everyday, oil spillage from petrol engines and kerosene lamps harms aquatic life. Electric powered engines and solar lamps are eco-friendly green energy sources and should be adopted by all of us.” said Kennedy Ojengo, a fisherman.
We were at Sienga Beach for the next two days, where more people stopped by the exhibition and for a chat. With each encounter we learnt just how much solar power is an incredible asset here. The local solar energy company – Wetu, also enlightened the community on the benefits of solar not only for fishing but also for home use. We closed down the exhibition at midday on the 18th of May 2022 with a few give-away solar samples to locals as an encouragement to relentlessly move forward with regards to green energy.
The community was excited to be on the world map from the heart of a remote village contributing to mitigation of climate change in the simplest of forms. They were amazed by the huge impact they had made by simply choosing to transition from the use of kerosene to solar power to make their livelihood.
Kaswanga Girls’ Education Programme
Patched on the hills of this magnificent Island is Kaswanga Girl’s High School where Anthony runs an education for environment programme. We set out on a dusty and hilly terrain for about 15 minutes on a mission to enlighten the younger generation.
Excited by our arrival, the high school girls quickly assembled in one of their classes armed with notes from the previous sessions Anthony had engaged with them. We conducted a follow up on the progress of the trees they had planted in the past term as well as their relation to climate change. They eagerly made contributions on their understanding of the importance of trees in climate change as well as their concerns to the current weather patterns and how well they can help avert this. We then shed light on the exhibition we conducted – Climate Smart Fishermen. The advantages of solar power vis a vie paraffin and how this transition is vital in mitigation efforts against global warming.
To sum it up, we encouraged them to apply the same consistency and diligence to their academics for them to achieve their career goals. We closed the session with a brief photo session and an opportunity for the girls to go live on our official FaceBook page explaining the message from each of the photo stands. With this, our mission was accomplished.
We left Rusinga Island more enlightened on the climate smart initiative that the fishing community has adopted and engaged with students with knowledge that will save planet earth for future generations. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step they say. We just set the first one.
The official close of the #EveryDayNile stories for the 2021/2022 edition was launched in Egypt on 14th June 2022. All the 10 grantees from the nine Nile Basin countries exhibited their photostories in Cairo. The exhibition was on till 20th July 2022.
Read more about #EverydayNile stories.
