Migingo Island, a 2,000 square meter round rock crammed with metal shacks and a population of over 500 inhabitants, lies in Lake Victoria right on the border between Uganda and Kenya. The two countries both claim ownership of the island, as its deep surrounding waters are home to an abundance of fish, such as the Nile perch, making it a valuable fishing hub and a promising financial booster. Fish catches have hugely declined over the years in the fishing communities around Lake Victoria due to overfishing and an invasion of water hyacinth plants that have blocked transportation on the lake and access to vital ports. These complications lead to the eventual human settlement on the island, and the population rapidly multiplied in a short period of time. Before the island became heavily inhabited, Uganda began sending armed police and marines to Miningo Island to tax Kenyan fishermen and offer them protection against pirates in 2004. The Kenyan fisherman, however, disliked their intentions and complained that they were being harrassed by Ugandan forces for illegally fishing in Ugandan territory. In my opinion, I disagree with Uganda, as the Island is evenly split between them and Kenya. Therefore, Uganda should not have complete jurisdiction over what the Kenyan fisherman can and cannot do as Kenya also has a say in the matter. In response to the crisis, the Kenyan government deployed marines to Migingo Island which ultimately brought the two nations to near conflict. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the population on the island continued to increase, Kenya and Uganda decided to create a joint committee to determine its border in 2016, but no progress was made. Currently, the island is controlled by both countries with flare ups occasionally occurring. On the bright side, however, continuing exports to the European Union and a skyrocketing demand for Nile Perch in Asia has helped both Uganda and Kenya’s economies, as the prized fish has brought in up to $300 a kilogram in international markets. Although the dispute over the island has caused tensions between Uganda and Kenya, the fish that surrounds it has brought good fortune to the area. As long as the Nile Perch remains abundant, the two countries’ will continue to have a stable economy. Hopefully the competitive ownership over the island will not result in a future war, as the occurrence would not only cause utter economic devastation but also put both of their populations at risk and their relationships with neighboring countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Migingo Island, a 2,000 square meter round rock crammed with metal shacks and a population of over 500 inhabitants, lies in Lake Victoria right on the border between Uganda and Kenya. The two countries both claim ownership of the island, as its deep surrounding waters are home to an abundance of fish, such as the Nile perch, making it a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3110,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3109\/revisions\/3110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}