Trade, AIDs and Sex for Fish.

Camera/ Reporter/Producer Annamarie Cumiskey Mob. +44 (0)7821 705912

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VO - Lake Victoria, the source of the Rivcr Nile.

This lake is so big ferries cross it.

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda share these waters.

The Luo live on Kenya's side of the lake. The Luo are fish-eaters, not meat-eaters Boys play with toy fishing boats, not cars.

So many fishermen have come here from across the country -to cash in on the Nile perch export trade - it's called the Nile Perch ‘Gold Rush'.

‘34

VO -  Exports of Nile Perch worth  £70 million went to Europe in 2005 under special EU free trade rules.

Senator Obama comes from here. He wants more Nile Perch exported to America.

Consumers in the West pay £10 a kilo for Nile Perch - nearly half of the population here lives off 50p or less a day. They can't compete.

Men leave early to catch Nile Perch.  Women wait on dry land to sell the fish.

1'02

VO -  This is Takahiri Island. 

People live in tin shacks built in haste to house the growing population who came in search of Nile Perch.

This is Winnie Ogama.  She closed her shop to take care of her dying husband. After his death she couldn't afford to reopen it.

Now, she buys Nile Perch from fishermen to sell to the export factories. Here she's watching one of her catches coming in.

This is a good catch for Winnie. 95 kgs. The fish is off to the mainland where trucks take it to the export factories.

Winnie paid £65 for the catch and earns a small fee. In a European supermarket freezer it would fetch

£950.

Winnie still has to pay fishermen another price for bringing her fish - "Sex for Fish".

It's known here as "jaboya" meaning an intimate client relationship with a fisherman.

1'58

Actuality  - Hello, How are you. Welcome Welcome.

2'02

VO - Winnie wants to talk about "Jaboya". Most women don't. First she needs her brother's approval - the head of the family.

Winnie talks about her experience with one fisherman in particular.

2'11

Int - Winnie - After I rejected him he started not to bring for me fish and it ended that he tried to stop the other fishermen from bringing me fish saying that Winnie she's a bad girl. Se doesn't understand. Why do you give her fish. So it went like that, like that. So I sat down and said this is where I am earning my living right now. What do I do. So, I decided to be with one. It's not fair because this pressure they put on you to be jaboya  somebody who had respected you may one day one time underrate you because you are being used by the fishermen because of their money.

3'06

VO - "Jaboya" made these women stop selling fish.  Helped by the Kageno Trust on Rusinga Island they now make crafts.

3'14

Int- Craft women (translator) - We were unhappy about that. We were being forced to do that. We were doing that with different partners so that they can get more fish. You don't get the fish if you refuse. Even if you have money you don't get the fish. It was happening like that because when you are in the line the jaboya who likes you he goes and picks you from the line and then puts you aside and gives you a share. The fisherman is from the lake and he is tired. He picks you from the line and measu,res you a share so that you can go with him he is tired and wants to go to sleep. You are always in a fight with the husband because he has already found out that you are having an affair

4'20

Actuality -  Music playing

4'23

VO - Some fishermen rent homes here.

After a night on the lake fishing they must mend the nets before sleeping.

One has given in already.

I asked them if they ever wanted more than money for fish.

4'35

Int - Fisherman - We are just busy with their money nowadays we are not busy with them personally for special favours or what ever. I have my family whatever so I can not depend on other women apart from the one in the house. These are small village. It would just be known. I do it far away from here not within this area.

5'03

VO -  The Nile Perch "Gold Rush" really took off after 1990  when it became free to export Nile Perch to Europe. Since then the number of fishermen has almost doubled from 25,000 to 45,000.

5'17

Screen text: Rhoda nYambok, Women in Fisheries Project

5'17

Intv - Rhoda  nYambok- It is true. Most fishermen nowadays are looking for the Nile Perch because it has actually very good prices attached to it. So, you find that most of these jaboya move from area to area looking for Nile Perch and when he moves from this area to that area and is sexually involved, unprotected, with the women, and even the girls, he keeps spreading the virus from one beach to another, from one person to another and he also gets re-infected. So, the demand for the Nile Perch also comes with the increase in the spread of HIV/AIDs in relation to the jaboya. Most of the fishermen ten years ago were stationed at the particular beaches where they operated so they didn't move up and down in search of more fish like they do nowadays.

6'20

Actuality - Children singing...

6'24

VO -

According to UN figures AIDs has dropped from 10% to 7% across Kenya.

In this region, Nyanza Province, it rose to 15%. 

Here in Suba District it's a staggering 42%.

The UN blames "Jaboya" for the high rate of AIDs here.

One third of the children at this school are orphaned.

The West pays for all of the AIDs treatment in Kenya.

6'50

Intv - Rhoda - There are very many young girls involved in this even as young as twelve years old. Most of them are orphans and it's a child headed household so they have to take care of their siblings. That definitely leaves them with no option.

7'10

VO - We asked these women if "Jaboya" gave them health problems.

7'15

Intv - Craft women -  STIs and AIDs and other health problems.

7'22

VO - Winnie has AIDs. She won't admit it on camera.  This photo is her before she was infected. She believes "Jaboya" gave her AIDs.

7'31

VO -

There's only one way to explain what's going on here. It's like being caught on this roundabout in Kisumu.

More fishermen catch more Nile Perch. There's more "Jaboya" and more AIDs. This means more widows and more orphans - so - more "Jaboya" and more AIDs,

It gets even more complicated though. Nile Perch is the main source of protein in these parts.

Protein deficiency is so bad here that UNICEF distributed protein tablets to children

8'03

VO - Dr. Richard Abila, Deputy - Director of the Kenyan Marine and Fisheries Research Institute - is a civil servant who dares to criticise the export trade.

8'10

Int - Dr. Abila - We are in a situation where protein deficiency is quiet a problem and the people here barely have any proteins to eat. So, if there was Nile Perch they would definitely eat it. Our governments are in dire need of foreign exchange.

8'33

Actuality - Music man

8'36

VO - There are other types of fish to buy here, Tilapia is the favourite. The scenes at this market in Homa Bay show there just isn't enough to go around.

8'44

Actuality - women bargaining at market

08'59

VO - Locals can buy Nile Perch from the factories, but just the skeleton.

The Kenyan government has always argued that people here don't like the taste of Nile Perch. So it was alright to export it.

The trade in Nile Perch skeletons proves otherwise.

Locals do like it. What they can get of it.

09'17

VO- The EU has committed £20 million to develop the Nile Perch export trade.

 Talks are now taking place to revise the free trade agreement,

led by Peter Mandelson, the Commissioner for External Trade.

The fact that Nile Perch is needed here has not been raised by the Kenyan government. It's staying quiet about the AIDs issue too.

People here won't have a say in where their fish goes.

Yet, it is their dinner on the negotiating table.

09'49

Actuality - Elsie giving food to Joffrey.

09'51

VO -Joffrey is Winnie's nephew. She takes care of him since his parents died. Joffrey says he needs Nile Perch for protein.

09'59

Intv - Jeoffrey - We need proteins.

10'05

VO - He needs Winnie too but AIDs will take her.