Smells Fishy

Last Thursday, Benson the carpenter and I had an outing to visit the fish farms of Sagana. Now it is a fact that the Kenyan do not eat that much fish, but having heard a lot about the set-up at Sagana we wanted to check it out for ourselves and see whether it is something that some of the youth groups here could get involved in.

We had agreed to meet in Murang’a town just after 09h00. But my first stop was the post office to pick up another parcel from Liverpool FC…no wonder we have zero funds in the transfer kitty! This time it contained some t-shirts that we can give out to the best performing children after the next set of exams. The fact that I have to pay £7 in customs duty for every parcel I receive is by the by.

With parcel in hand, I strolled down the “Famous Café” (you must know it then?!), took a seat where I could see all the room, ordered a dufia (white tea no sugar) and sipped it happily as I waited for Benson. All good days begin with tea…in my experience a day cannot truly be considered to have started and started well if it does not start with tea. Benson duly arrived, got himself a “chai” (white tea with sugar) and together we excitedly talked about the day ahead of us. We were sure we’d have a whale of a time. The plan was to get the mutatu the 15 or so miles to Sagana then walk to the fisheries in the hope that we could not only persuade them to let us in, but show us around also.

We washed down our drinks, deposited the Liverpool T-Shirts at the pharmacy run by a friend of Benson’s who tried to convince me I was sick and need to buy all kinds of remedies, and hopped into the a waiting mutatu bound for Sagana. Benson settled down at the back, and I was seated upfront with the driver. This happens a lot me getting sat up front… drivers have even gone so far as to move the person already sat upfront in order to seat me there. I used to be honoured (if a little embarrassed if it meant shifting a lame octogenarian), but now I am sure there is more to it than that. I have started to notice that when I sit up front, not only am much more visible to the policemen who stop us at the road blocks but furthermore, our propensity for getting stopped at the afore mentioned road blocks is less. They are USING me… as some strawberry blond beacon to our law abidingness! Oh I feel so cheap!


Although the journey from Murang’a to Sagana is only short, the landscape changes markedly in that short time. In the 20 or so minutes it takes, you pass from the lush green rolling Murang’a hills to the flatter grassy plains of Sagana.
We alighted just before the town of Sagana itself…just across the river which marks the frontier between the 2 districts of the same name. After taking a couple of snaps of the river and looking out for crocs, Benson directed us down a dirt track that ran perpendicular to the road, parallel to the river. After a hundred or so metres, we met up with some train tracks. So accompanied by the river on our left and the train tracks on our right, we snaked along the dirt track in the direction of the Sagana Fisheries.

Loving all things train related (apart form leaves on the line and the wrong kind of snow) I was interested to see where the tracks led. Fortunately they continued in our direction and before long we began to pass cereal mills, timbers yards & coffee depots; the tracks branching off like a palm tree to serve them. But no activity was to be detected at any of them, they are all of them deserted; the tracks now just a reminder of long gone golden days when Sagana was bustling hub. Sagana is sadly now just graveyard.

Intrigued to know why, I inquired of Benson what happened; after all they have all the infrastructure there to be a distribution centre and they still grow and produce large quantities of tea and coffee further to the north. Benson laid the entire blame at the foot of the second president (quite an achievement). Although Kenya gained in dependence from GB in 1963, it has only had 3 presidents in that time (we are on the 3rd currently). The first, Jomo Kenyatta (1964 –1978) is still revered and his face still smiles back at you from all the notes and coins. He was a freedom fighter during the end of colonial times and it seems can do no wrong. The second, Daniel arap Moi (1978 – 2002) was, according to Benson a right piece of work. It would seem he single handedly ran Kenya (into the ground). In addition to his role of president he apparently acted as minister of interior, minister of transport, minister of agriculture…and all portfolios executed with same incompetence. I don’t know much about it, but what I have dug up is not positive:
i. He appointed his supporters to key roles and changed the constitution to establish a de jure single-party state.
ii. In 1999 the findings of Amnesty International and a special investigation by the United Nations [were published which indicated that human rights abuses were prevalent in Kenya under the Moi regime.

We pressed on. The unmistakeable smell of leather filled the air as we passed a tannery before we started to see pond after pond…not the kind of ponds you may have in your garden, but large rectangular ponds measuring 50 m x 75 m (165ft x 250ft). Passing through the gates, we walked up the well kept path under well kept palm trees and presented ourselves at the well kept reception. The receptionist smiled and scurried off, to return accompanied by a smartly dressed man of about 45 years of age who introduced himself as Isaac, the general manager of the Sagana Fish Culture Farm. Everything about the place was well kept.

Isaac led us into his office and sat us down to make our introductions. I told him I work for Birdseye and that my grandfather, the world famous captain Birdseye had sent me on a strategic sourcing mission to Kenya to identify and qualify potential new suppliers. I assured him that he too had had reddish hair in his youth and that my beard would turn white in the years to come. Benson I introduced as Rick Stein’s sous-chef, who was accompanying me to ensure the highest possible quality for our new Birdseye range of Rick Stein branded fish fingers…after all there’s “nothing but the best for the captain’s table”!

Just codding! We told him we were from St. Anna and keen to learn about the set-up there and whether this is a potential revenue project for the youth groups in the area.

Isaac was only too happy to tell us the history of the centre and willingly agreed to show us around. The fisheries were founded in 1948 by an ecologist & missionary whose name escapes me (John something) and now comprises 150 ponds covering 170 acres. The farm was started with the following aims:
. To demonstrated warm fresh water fish farming
. To research and trial of warm water aquaculture
. To train fish farming extension workers
. To produce fingerlings for fish farmers

Now it is a fact that most of Kenya’s fish come from the great lakes of Victoria in the east and Turkana in the north. But due to over fishing and the unsustainable farming methods (sound familiar?), the Kenyan waters of Lake Victoria are more or less exhausted. Owning only 4% of the surface area of Lake Victoria, the Kenyan fishermen are now invading the remaining 96% recognised as Ugandan water … all the ingredients for another war there then :-(

So with demand beginning to grow and supply falling, the government is stepping in to increase supply whilst simultaneously promoting small businesses. The government has allocated KES1.1b to the ministries of fishery development to construct 200 ponds in each of 140 constituencies (plus to provide feed for 3 months until the first generation of fish can be sold and the money generated to pay for own food). Excel calculates that to be 280,000 ponds, each designed to contain an average of 900 fish, that’s a lot of fish…25,200,000

The centre also conducts on site training and supports those interested in setting up their own ponds. Furthermore the centre rears fish (do you rear fish?) from eggs to larvae to fry; this takes somewhere form 2 to 3 months before they reach fingerling. Like a big slow moving watery conveyor belt, the fish are transferred from one pond to another as they grow. When ready they sell the “fingerlings” to the farmers and cooperatives to stock their ponds to the tuna KES3/fingerling (to the tuna … get it?).
By now Isaac was getting into his stride. Having told us about the centre and its operations, he continued with the construction of a pond. “The following factors need to be taken into consideration when considering building a pond” he announced. Things should always be considered when considering I find:
. Water (it’s the environment for fish Isaac informed us);
. Gradient of the land: not ridiculously steep as it will all run away (could be a showstopper for us seeing as the school is on a hill!);
. Soil: ≥ 25% clay otherwise the water will drain out.

Shape is also important. The fisheries department recommends a rectangular pond of about 20m x 15m as the fish are easier to catch come that time … doesn’t sound very sporting to me. Kidney shaped pools are frowned on, as are those infinity ones with massage jets and an island bar the middle.

There should be an inlet at one end and an outlet at the other so water can flow in and out as needed. The floor of the pond should also slope downwards from the shallower inlet end to the outlet end, thus ensuring the fish can learn to pick up a brick from the deep end.

No running is allowed, as is no diving, no dunking, no bombing & no petting ... we don’t pee in your toilet, please don’t pee in our pool.

Explanations over, Isaac took us around the facility. From the hatchery to the fry ponds, and on to the fingerling ponds with the chicken coops erected on stilts over the water so the chickens poop into them providing much needed nitrogen and prosperous for plant growth, it was all very interesting but don’t take my word for it: http://www.fisheries.go.ke/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=89&Itemid=2

The tour over and eager to spend some money but unable to find a fridge magnet, we picked up the information booklet for KES200 / £2 to learn more. I have it next to me and jolly informative reading it is too. Having thanked Isaac warmly and we bid him farewell and made our way back towards Sagana for refreshment (more tea) and the bus home.

As I write this I am sat in Nairobi and tomorrow morning at 11h00 I have a meeting with a company called Dynamic Business Start up Project (http://dbsp.co.za)

DBSP's vision is to train and assist unemployed people to earn their own money, by self employment, thereby getting themselves out of the trap of poverty and providing jobs for others. Their mission is to provide outcomes based business skills training, information and after-care support to entrepreneurially motivated individuals, particularly those from an economically disadvantaged background, so that they are able to establish (or improve) their own viable, sustainable business, targeting especially under developed & rural areas.

I will be discussing with them the different projects we are considering launching with the youth groups and the community around St. Anna (including the fish) to see how they could help us.

I’ll let you know.

Night night.

Oh, on Wednesday of this week I head to the Masai Mara for 3 days … I have treated myself to a Safari before flying home to the UK on Friday evening.