Lakeside County Cooperation Marks a Great Start Of The Lake Victoria Expedition
By James Wakibia - Flipflopi Goodwill Ambassador
Dave Ojay, H.E. HON. Cyprian Otieno Awiti, Rahmina Paulette, H.E. Prof. Peter Anyang' Nyong'o and Julius Court DHC from the UK. © UMBER Studio the Flipflopi Project
The 4th of March 2021 marked the official launch of the Flipflopi Lake Victoria expedition, from Kisumu County, Kenya.
With the agenda defined and led by Kisumu County Government, the community of Dunga Beach hosted the Flipflopi dhow to set the stage for the official launch ceremony. It brought together Kenyan County Governors, multiple CECs of water and the environment, UNEP’s Director and Regional Representative, UK’s Deputy High Commissioner amongst many other influential statesmen.
The backdrop for the event at the Dunga Fishing Beach roundabout was a huge recycled plastic sculpture of a Nile Perch stuffed with ‘takataka’. The sculpture appeared to be jumping out of the water, as a symbol of the devastating plastic pollution threatening the water and livelihoods.
Lakeside County Governors came together on this day in a way we had not anticipated and made speeches that we hope mark a turning point in the Kenyan story.
The neighbouring county governors of Kisumu and Homa Bay, H.E. Prof. Peter Anyang' Nyong'o and H.E. HON. Cyprian Otieno Awiti both acknowledged the deep distress of the lake. During the event they made commitments to tackle the issue through county-level consensus and bans on single-use plastic:
Kisumu governor H.E. Prof. Peter Anyang' Nyong'o. © UMBER Studio the Flipflopi Project
Referring to Lake Victoria as ‘our tea and our coffee’ the Governor of Homa Bay said that “We will be judged very harshly if we let it [Lake Victoria} go down...We need a policy that covers the entire lake region so we can be ahead of the issues that destroy the lake”.
And the Governor of Kisumu County, stating that Lake Victoria “is my lifeline and I don’t want to see it die” made a change-inducing statement during the high-level panel discussion: “If countries are not ready to take the step on banning single-use plastic, we as counties may have to bite the bullet as something urgently needs to be done.”
A senior policymaker, Dickson Oruko Nyawinda, CEC environment and Water of Homa Bay County, summarised the moment well.
“On behalf of the CECs around Lake Victoria, this is a dream come true. Seeing two Governors come together to start something...It’s better we start now than not at all.
...There will be no blue economy without Lake Victoria and there will be no lake Victoria if we continue to devastate it.”
These statements show promise of intent that we are hopeful will lead to real change in the lakeside counties of Kenya and beyond.
By Kisumu and Homa Bay counties taking the lead, the hope is we see a domino effect throughout all lake bordering counties. This movement we hope will trigger a change in Uganda and Tanzania over time too.
From legislation to innovation
County legislation could not come soon enough as plastic pollution continues to build at an alarming rate, and we need a clear roadmap in our communities towards a greener and sustainable future post-pandemic.
Media covering the event at Dunga Hill Beach. © UMBER Studio the Flipflopi Project
Of course, commitments to banning single-use plastic are central to the solution. But it doesn't end there. We need to create the right environment for circular solutions and innovations to grow. Kisumu county government, for example, is starting to create that environment with the start-up of innovation and investment hubs supporting small and medium-sized businesses.
Yet more must be done to encourage innovation by local businesses. For that, our partners Anjarwalla & Khanna explained it well when Rosa Nduati-Mutero said:
“We need to ensure the protection of innovation - we must ensure there is the intellectual property to protect their idea and income, whilst injecting the investment and capital to ensure entrepreneurs can scale up their idea”
What’s next? An upstream movement must grow
Pollution knows no borders. That’s why we have come to Lake Victoria. We are spreading the campaign message beyond Kenya, to Uganda and Tanzania. And we hope to see similar commitments by the lakeside counties in these neighbouring countries.
Without that, the lake will continue to relentlessly fill with waste from our lands and rivers. If we don’t act now, we’ll leave the worst legacy - a dead ‘freshwater’ system, unable to support the 40 million people living around it.
Crowds gathered at Dunga Hill Beach. © UMBER Studio the Flipflopi Project
Footnote
We have heard that our strategic and legal partners, Anjarwhalla & Khanna, have just finalised the bill they’ve been drafting to ban single-use plastics across East Africa. With this in mind, we hope to bring it to the East African Assembly in the coming months to push for regional consensus on the issue.
You can support the movement by adding your name to the petition here to ban single-use plastics in East Africa.