Three Kenyan fishermen who were in July arrested in Madagascar have been released and repatriated to the country.
This came amid calls for the government to take stock of its fishermen and spearhead registration that would see them fish in international waters.
Awadh Mbarak, 26, Mohammed Bakari, 50, and Karisa Nguma, 32, were released following intervention by the Blue Economy ministry, Kenya Maritime Agency and other human rights organisations.
They were arrested on July 9 while fishing in foreign waters.
They landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Thursday morning, much to the joy of family and friends who were waiting at the facility.
The families said the four months their relatives were in Madagascar prison for illegal fishing was a tough time.
“It’s like a dream come true to unite with my family. I had really missed them and often felt homesick,” Bakari said.
According to the family members of the fishermen, apart from the government offering proper counselling, it should fully compensate them for the trauma they have gone through, as they say, most of their time in incarceration, they went without food.
At the airport to receive them were officials from the Ministry of Blue Economy, led by the directors general from the Kenya Fisheries Services and the Kenya Maritime Authority.
The government says it has been on its toes, following up on the matter since news of their arrest on foreign waters went viral.
“We even sent our legal teams to Madagascar to help bring our arrested fishermen back home,” said Julius Koech, the acting director general of Kenya Maritime Authority.
According to the three fishermen, theirs has been a journey they wouldn’t want anyone else to go through, considering the pain of regularly sleeping hungry and living in conditions they wouldn’t want to describe, as they solely placed their hope in the hands of the Kenyan authorities.
Blue Economy CS Hassan Joho has been engaged in securing their release as a multi–ministry approach was employed to have the three return home.
“We are grateful to CS Joho and are asking that he helps our sons to get their rights from the government in terms of compensation if any,” Mbaraka Hassan said.
Hassan is the father of Awadh.
The fishermen urged the government to licence them, saying were it not for the lack of documentation, they would not have been arrested.
“If you are licensed, you can fish even in international waters,” Awadh said.
“When you are a fisherman and in the waters fishing, you have no voice if you are not licensed,” Nguma added.
Hassan asked the government to ensure the freed fishermen get proper counselling.
The government is also asking those with vessels that
operate beyond the Kenyan waters or within the Kenyan
waters and have not registered them, to do so, as well as
register the crew on board to avert situations that would
place Kenyans in jeopardy.