Lake Turkana’s Past-Present-Future

Interviewee

James Robertson

Chairman Ker & Downey Safaris, Former Chairman of Mara Conservancy Board and NWNL Advisor

Interviewer

Alison M. Jones

NWNL Director and Photographer

In Nairobi, Kenya on March 15, 2013

Introductory Note

Part of James’s undaunted character comes from having grown up as a child the Rift Valley on the Kenyan shores of Lake Turkana, below its border with Ethiopia. He knows the region as a former resident, a lifetime fisherman and a tour guide who loves its dry, windy climate. And, although we didn’t discuss Turkana’s birdlife in this interview, I know James is a “fundi” (expert, in Swahili) on the many bird species in Lake Turkana Basin, including migrants flying from Eastern Europe to East Africa and back.

This interview focused on impacts on Lake Turkana of Ethiopia’s Omo River dams that then were being disputed on several fronts. One major concern was on whether Ethiopia’s dams and irrigation schemes for new sugar and cotton plantations would lower water levels of Lake Turkana. NWNL actively documented cultural and environmental impacts of the 3 Gibe Dams and with International Rivers exposed the lack of environmental and cultural impact studies as required by Ethiopia’s Constitution, but not done.

Outline

A YOUTH SPENT on L TURKANA
THE LAKE’S FISH & CROCODILES
FERGUSON’S GULF
FISHING REGULATIONS & EDUCATION
THE PEOPLE, LAKE & FISH v. DAMS
GLOBAL & NATIONAL SUPPORT

Key Quote Disaster is pending for the lake. There’s no way Lake Turkana will offer the usual utilization by the people if Ethiopian dams and irrigated plantations are in place restricting the Omo River’s annual flows into the lake. Ethiopian dams and new irrigation schemes hold back too much water. – James Robertson

A YOUTH SPENT on L TURKANA

NWNL James, thank you so much for sitting down to chat about Lake Turkana – a dry and hot destination that discourages many tourists, but one about which you are passionate. Yet, here you are in Langata, living adjacent to a giraffe sanctuary’s forest with a stream running through it, masses of wildflowers and towering trees.

JAMES ROBERTSON Yes, today, I live outside of Nairobi where it’s much greener than the shores of Lake Turkana. Also, Nairobi is a busy city with 4 to 4½ million people. So, Nairobi is far and very different from the very desolate shores of Lake Turkana.

NWNL Let’s start with your background experiences in and around Lake Turkana.

JAMES ROBERTSON I was brought up in western Kenya near Mount Elgon, where my parents lived on Lake Turkana. My mother built a lodge when the lake was still called by its British name of Lake Rudolf. The Lake Rudolf Angling Club was built in around 1966 or 1967. She then managed it from 1967-1972. We used to have all our holidays near Kalokol at Ferguson’s Gulf – very definitely it will not be a gulf if Ethiopia builds dams above the Omo River which feeds over 90% of Lake Turkana. I have incredibly fond memories of it as one of the most incredible places for a youngster. I had the freedom to grow up with boats and amazing characters around that lakeshore. NORAD, a European fishing operation, was surveying Lake Turkana then on Halcyon, their trawler. They were all with us almost every weekend. So, living on the lake gave me great insights and was a great place to grow up.

THE LAKE’S FISH & CROCODILES

NWNL What was the state of Turkana’s fisheries about 40 years ago? What kind of fish were in the lake then, and how important or successful was fishing there as an industry then?

JAMES ROBERTSON The Turkana were taught to fish by NORAD by a very unusual character, Bob McConnell who lived there for 20-30 years. The Turkana people loved Bob. But it was so desolate; there was very little on the shores. Even for the growing local population, eking out a living with livestock was getting harder and harder to stay there. Initially, Turkana people looked down on people who ate fish; but with increasingly longer droughts, the more they learned to fish. It was all about money.

As far as fish, there were great numbers of Nile perch. In the 5 years that my mother ran that lodge, our fishing boats would go out and catch 100+ pounders. It was seldom one would go out without catching 14 or 15 good perch in 2 or 3 hours. There were many, many other different species, tilapia being a major one. At that time, the Turkana netted them with their baskets, which they would throw. Nets museum They would use their feet to walk in the water, touching the bottom. They could feel where cichlid nests were because they make V-shape nests in the sand. The moment their feet felt a little V forming, they’d put their net right over it, and put their hand into a hole in the top to get a hold of the tilapia and hold it, and then lift the net up. That was a very common form of fishing.

We would see the Turkana fishermen all along the lakeshore, specifically in bays where the tilapia nested. They knew all the best nesting spots – and where they thought the crocodile were dangerous. But you’d see them fishing in the lake with very little fear then, even with crocodile all around them. There were huge populations of crocodile – probably estimated to be the highest density in the world then. But that soon was put an end when NORAD handed out nets, replacing those nets that caught crocodiles and buying the belly skin before they realized that it was unusable. The belly skin had a little black spot on it and couldn’t be utilized because you couldn’t cure it properly.

But the damage to Turkana’s crocodile population was done before they realized that. So the Turkana got the meat and the back of the crocodiles, which they turned into their shields. Just about every Turkana had one. They got new nets from NORAD at no extra cost, so there was no hope for the crocodiles, given the number of nets the Turkana were given. I can very clearly remember when they put nets around the whole mouth of the Gulf. There was no in- or out-access for the crocodiles without their getting caught in those nets.

NWNL Why did NORAD encourage crocodile hunting and want the crocodiles? Was it just to market their skins, or was it to protect fish?

JAMES ROBERTSON No, it was just to go to market. As a result, there was a rapid depletion of crocodiles documented in Eyelids of Morning, by Alistair Graham and Peter Beard. [Ed Note: See photo of book cover at bottom of this interview] That book tells the whole story of what was going on when we were up there. Richard Leakey was then just beginning his archeological work there.. He hadn’t discovered his fossils at that point, but he was getting his camp in place. It was an exciting time. The lake was incredibly active. There were many people with Leakey, teaching the Turkana how to hunt fossils – instead of crocodiles. It was an active part of the world.

FERGUSON’S GULF

NWNL I understand Ferguson’s Gulf was a significant breeding ground.

JAMES ROBERTSON There are numerous parts of the lake I was never aware of at the time, as I was very young. But it stands to reason that breeding could occur in any protected, secluded part of that lake, especially Ferguson’s Gulf which is protected from the powerful easterly winds that come across the lake. Because there are winds just about all along the west coast of the lake, breeding would be very difficult for the fish. So, the Gulf itself was probably the only place that provided fish a real nursery on that lake.

NWNL How does Ferguson’s Gulf compare to the Omo Delta as a nursery? I hear them both described as critical breeding grounds for the fish.

JAMES ROBERTSON I’m not sure there’s any difference. The Omo Delta [which spans the Ethiopian-Kenyan border] is also protected, unlike the open waters on the lake’s western shore. Basically, there is no other secluded, protected place for tilapia or perch to breed. I’m sure they breed in the lee of Central Island and South Island. They probably also have great breeding places on the eastern side, including El-Molo Bay towards Loyangalani down near the south end of the lake, which was always an incredible spot. That lake gets extraordinarily rough with its wind, so anywhere on the western side that is protected would be a breeding place.

Central Island was renowned for its fishing in the years we were there, as were any bays similar to Ferguson’s Gulf if you could get deep in. There are also great breeding places for crocodiles in the bays around volcanos in the southern end of the lake.. They weren’t just fisheries. Crocodiles benefitted from those protective waters, but striped hyenas came down to dig up the crocodile eggs right there at the lake’s southern end, off those lava flows that must have been incredibly hot. Come down onto the lakeshore at night.

Somewhere there’s footage on hyenas coming down onto the lakeshore to dig up these eggs where the crocs nesting. The Nile perch were also breeding down there and were another source of food for the crocs.

NWNL Do the crocs feed on the fish, the fish eggs, or both?

JAMES ROBERTSON Only fish.

FISHING REGULATIONS & EDUCATION

NWNL So, if the croc population is now fairly-well decimated, are there more fish in the lake?

JAMES ROBERTSON Not a chance. I haven’t been up there for too many years, but I used to spend a lot of time fishing up and down that lake. Most recently, I was there about five years ago for a week. We crisscrossed the lake, and a couple of places weren’t too bad; but most of the lake was just filled with endless commercial “long lines.” We traveled extensively, and even the Turkana fishermen we talked to on the shores said the sizes of their catches were reduced.

In fact, they were struggling to get anything. They were barely eking out a living. The moment you got to somewhere like Koobi Fora National Park where the lake is protected, the fishing was immediately and noticeably much, much better. The people there are not allowed to fish off the shore, and so fishing there was incredible. But only at that one little spot, where there was a bit of protection.

NWNL When I was at Turkana, there was talk about no fishing regulations within national park waters. Since the waters are not demarcated, nobody knows what is restricted, therefore people are arrested when they don’t even know they’re in protected waters.

JAMES ROBERTSON That happens everywhere in the world. They know where the park boundary is, on both sides. Most of those fishermen just love to push the boundary, because the fishing is no longer any good elsewhere, so they’re bound to go to those places. Then they’re bound to say, “I’m innocent, I didn’t know.” That’s the way of the world.

There is also an issue regarding the size of nets in Turkana today. There used to be limitations by the Kenya Fisheries Department; but they are gone, even in Lake Victoria. There’s no control at all on any of the fishing policies. The net sizes are not adhered to, so smaller and smaller fish get taken out.

NWNL We heard the regulation now is that they must be over three inches.

JAMES ROBERTSON If they are keeping to three inches, that’s fantastic. When we were there, they were definitely down to about an inch. Turkana fishermen were pulling almost everything possible in, and everything was used.

NWNL Do you see any positive changes among the Turkana communities. Do you see any signs of hope for their prosperity or even their survival as a culture?

JAMES ROBERTSON During the ‘60s, there was very little education regarding legal or other issues. But it’s amazing. Along with education comes incredible change. The culture is affected immediately, and that is the universal story of the disappearance of a culture through western education.

Many of those Mission Stations around the lake provide some of the best education in Kenya. There are some of the brightest young people up there. That will be good for them in the long run, because they could rise in politics and end up giving the people in that area more of a say. In the long term, it’ll be beneficial if those who are schooled elsewhere come back. But many of those people struggle to find jobs in that part of the world. So, unfortunately they leave, and quite often do not return. Those that do return could be a great help to the area with boating freight and holding up local rights.

THE PEOPLE, LAKE & FISH v DAMS

NWNL How serious are the threats to the health of the Lake Turkana ecosystem now and how do those threats relate to each other and further complicate the problem? For instance – dams, agricultural schemes, possible drilling for oil below the lake, invasive species like the Prosopis and climate change issues? There seem to be 3 impending human threats that are foremost on peoples’ minds: Ethiopia’s Gibe Dams, agricultural impacts to water quality and oil drilling.

JAMES ROBERTSON Disaster is pending for the lake. There’s no way Lake Turkana will offer the usual utilization by the people if Ethiopian dams and irrigated plantations are in place restricting the Omo River’s annual flows into the lake. Ethiopian dams and new irrigation schemes hold back too much water. All the statistics that Sean Avery has produced [See NWNL’s interview with Sean Avery on Hydrology Impacts of Ethiopia’s Dams] say that the lake level drops in an alkaline area like Turkana will only increase the salinity and alkalinity, thus making that area absolutely unusable, except for very specific species like some tilapia that we know can survive in very alkaline water.

Tilapia is a fish that survives in Kenya’s alkaline Lake Nakuru and Lake Magadi springs around its bay. You would seldom get any more saline waters than those. You’ll see a definite change in Turkana’s fisheries; but there will be species that will survive, and indeed Nakuru has an incredible species that were introduced. The tonnage of fish that could be taken out of Nakuru is quite substantial. So, while many species will disappear, one will come out and survive. Maybe they would have to introduce more like that.

The proposed Ethiopian dams will change a way of life for all those people that live around Lake Turkana. That lake will no longer be an asset to them. It is still usable at this stage. The local people drink its water, but we wouldn’t. But if it becomes totally non-potable., the life around the lakeshore will be very different.

But who knows? Maybe with oil and other revenue coming in, there will be efforts at greening the desert. It’s been done before. It’s been done in the U.S., Arizona, but what impacts does that have on other places? I don’t know what happens when rivers are gone because their water sources is being drained off elsewhere.

NWNL I don’t think Turkana or anyone really wants to follow the US water thread. The Colorado River is running out of water because it is being pulled off to greater and greater extents. The aquifers are now empty. The issue of reduced water resources is becoming more and more of a crisis worldwide.

JAMES ROBERTSON Absolutely. Who knows what the aquifers are like around Lake Turkana? There’s supposedly an enormous aquifer under the Sahara. But I don’t know how far that goes down.

The dams definitely have a long-term effect on the viability of that lake, availability of potable water, fisheries and the Turkana people themselves.

NATIONAL & GLOBAL SUPPORT

NWNL Can the overall values of the Turkana region and its people survive these problems we’ve discussed? I hear talk of hope coming from new exploration there of geothermal energy, as well as the Kenyan’s national pride of having the world’s largest desert lake. How extensive is the range of possible disruption and even loss of the values of that region?

JAMES ROBERTSON You’ve given me a tough one there. Turkana always been the forgotten part of Kenya. It’s been the least used part of Kenya. Even if it were to remain unchanged for now, it’s hard to imagine what other changes will take place to disrupt the Turkana region in the future.

There is concern today around the world about land use. Lake Turkana was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 and expanded in 2001, and yet this World Heritage Site is on the edge. There is extraordinary and beautiful country up there. It’s rugged, but it is stunning, with active volcanic islands and with Koobi Fora’s paleo-anthropological site near Ileret, full of well-preserved hominid and other fossils. It could be a very useable wilderness area for tourism. But, with dams on Ethiopia’s Omo River that provides almost all of the lake’s water, I don’t think it will be the same. I don’t think usable options will exist once that lake has shrunk to be the level it will.

It’s never been easy living on the shores of Lake Turkana. The Turkana are some of the toughest people in Kenya just because of that existence. They live on that shoreline with just a pile of rocks around, totally exposed to the sun and not a worry in the world. There are very few people who could live the way they do. They have never had much. To me, all that is important as we look to the future and consider what could be there. For instance, a windfarm being considered would protect huge acreage of land, because part of the mandate is that 240,000 acres (I think) would be set aside for conservation that would help increase revenue for the area.

That country is stunning; and there are other projects around the Turkana region like that windfarm, but they are few and far between. I think the only challenge for such projects is a lack of funding.

NWNL What chance do you think there is that the Gibe Dam might be stopped or that the agricultural schemes, to be linked to and profit from the dam, would be held to taking limited amounts of water out of Ethiopia’s Omo River? Those are both Ethiopian issues, so does Kenya have the power to make a request of Ethiopia that would be honored? Does Kenya have a history of working with Ethiopia?

JAMES ROBERTSON I don’t think there’s any history of working together, but I can’t give you an informed answer. I think it would have to go to UNESCO or a bigger body. Kenya’s government would have to take it through international courts. That would be the only route, but Kenyans won’t be able to do that. I don’t know if a bigger entity could even stand a chance.

Would the Chinese listen to international courts?

NWNL James, shall we switch and talk about the success of Kenya’s Mara Conservancy? Would that make you happier?

JAMES ROBERTSON Was I not happy?

NWNL Well, even I get gloomy about the threats to Lake Turkana and its ancient culture.

JAMES ROBERTSON Yes, it’s an extraordinary place.

NWNL Yes, let’s conclude on that comment! Thank you for sharing your lifetime of experiences and appreciation of Lake Turkana – and sharing with me a wonderful list of great books on East Africa – including Peter Beard’s “Eyelids of Morning”]

Posted by NWNL on May 15, 2024.
Transcription edited and condensed for clarity by Alison M. Jones.

Lake Turkana’s Past-Present-Future Omo River Basin