Julius Hakiza, the Albertine Region Police spokesperson, confirmed the incident, stating that local fishermen and the marine police initiated a search for Andhama's body, which was recovered on Sunday evening.
The official handover took place at Masese landing site on Monday, where Southern Division Mayor Nasser Ashiraf received the donation during an engagement with UPDF officers.
The deceased has been identified as Milton Gubaza, a fisherman attached to Runga landing site in Kibiro parish Kiganja sub county in Hoim district. The incident happened on Thursday evening.
Busoga North police spokesperson Michael Kasadha says that detectives have been dispatched to the scene of the crime and preliminary findings indicate that the deceased was killed from another area and the body dumped in the swamp.
Rashid Kasaajja, the Bukagabo landing site chairperson, says that much as the Fisheries Protection Unit-FPU personnel have labored to sensitize fishermen on the disadvantages of using illegal fishing gear, which contribute to the increase of fatal accidents across the lake, most of them have remained adamant.
Isaac Masanga, a fisherman says that it took a long time for them to understand that the operational licenses run from January to December. He explains that since most fishermen paid mid-last year owing to the financial challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, they were prompted to think that the same would expire in July 2022, which partly explains the delayed renewal of the licenses.
Hassan Latif, a water safety coach attached to Masdar says that Busoga sub-region is still grappling with the challenge of managing drowning cases due to overloading of passenger boats and use of illegal boats during fishing activities.
One of the UPDF officers, manning the Nile bridge checkpoint, who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity, says that they thoroughly checked Bave before they cleared him to access the bridge but he jumped into the river about 200 meters away from them.
Philemon Kudeera, the coordinator of the project, says that his colleagues were sensitized on the merits of the project and have since embraced it. He says that the construction of such a facility will boost safety sensitization drives across the Lake Victoria shoreline in Jinja and the surrounding areas.
The deceased has only been identified as Owonda, a fisherman attached to Kijangi landing site in Tonya parish Buseruka sub county in Hoima district. Julius Hakiza, the Albertine region police spokesperson confirmed the incident saying they have launched investigations.
“A big boat together with the engine costs about Shillings 3.5 million and most of the fishermen who cannot afford such continue to use small boats well aware that, their lives are at risk more so during this rainy season,” he said.
Yusuf Mukisa, a fisherman says that before the dumping started, each of them would catch on average 15 mature fish but the fish catch has since dropped, which has deprived them of their livelihood.
The fishermen told URN on Thursday that some fishermen had resorted to fish poisoning so as to harvest more yet in the long run threatening the sustainability of the fisheries sector to compete on the global market.
