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{
    "id": 1569428,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569428/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 383,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you. Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support this Motion. This report should be adopted basically for three simple reasons. One, our Constitution obliges us that once we are involved in an international treaty, it must be part of our laws. Therefore, it is important to ratify it. Two, this seems to be more on deep sea fishing. I know that this is an area that is dominated by foreigners. Actually, there is a lot of infringement of our local waters in the pretext that it is actually international waters. If we do not look at these areas and make sure that local fishermen who venture into deep sea fishing are protected, they will actually be exploited by foreigners. Moreover, these people are very sophisticated while our fishermen do not use sophisticated equipment as the foreigners. Therefore, if there is need for them to be subsidised within the confines of the Treaty, we should support that. The third reason is that it gives me an opportunity to address the Chairperson of this Department Committee. Locally, in the inland lakes, we actually have a much bigger need and our blue economy is addressing this by trying to improve the fishing, improve the gear that we use, and trying to support our people. The fish stocks are dwindling. The fishing gears that are used are actually deleterious to the fish stocks, so, they literally catch everything. This is a big problem, particularly in Lake Victoria. There are a lot of clashes with our neighbours, particularly Uganda and, to some extent, Tanzania. Many fishermen are often arrested and their fishing gears are confiscated and destroyed. So, as we protect deep-sea fishing and international waters, we must also look at local fishing."
}