Kenya Marine Fisheries Socio-Economic Development Project

28/09/2026

Building capacity for sustainable fisheries starts with empowering communities.

Through KEMFSED, 16,815 leaders and members of Beach Management Units (BMUs) across Kenya’s five coastal counties were trained to strengthen fisheries co-management in partnership with county and national governments.

The training enabled communities to:

• Build on their wealth of local knowledge and strengthen their organisations.
• Develop the skills and systems needed to contribute more effectively to the sustainable management of ocean resources.

To ensure that this knowledge and skills are sustained and shared within communities, KEMFSED and its partners jointly developed a collection of practical training tools and manuals covering fisheries co-management, BMU governance and functioning, financial management, fish handling and hygiene, and training methods.

Checkout the training learning resources: https://www.kefs.go.ke/downloads-resources

State Department for Blue Economy and Fisheries

25/09/2026

25/09/2026

With GPS trackers and mobile apps, they know where fish are plenty and avoid areas that need time to recover. This helps keep fish stocks healthy and ensures fishing can support their families for years to come.
By sharing what they learn with managers, fishing communities work together to look after the marine environment and their future livelihoods.
Increased adoption of technology is one of the benefits of efforts supported by KEMFSED to modernize the fisheries sector.
Over the last five years, KEMFSED has helped to transform the fisheries by strengthening policies, institutions, systems, and infrastructure needed for sustainable management of marine resources.

Some key achievements:

• Updating fishing policies and plans
• Creating Kenya’s first Marine Spatial Plan balancing growth and protection of the ocean’s resources
• Improving monitoring to stop illegal fishing
• Building new fish landing sites, management hubs, and a training center for sustainable fish farming
• Using better data systems for decision-making and targeted investments.

These efforts protect our reefs, mangroves, and fish, and empower communities, helping Kenya build a strong and sustainable that delivers benefits to coastal communities and the national economy.

Read the Project Brief on our work in this area: https://tinyurl.com/2vdyb3sv

23/09/2026

A KEMFSED Project nears the end, we’re proud of what has been achieved to empower Kenya's coastal communities and ensure blue economy growth.
We adopted a Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach to ensure communities have a direct role in identifying priorities, planning, implementing and sustaining development interventions.
CDD puts local ownership, participation and inclusion at the heart of development—ensuring women, youth, and vulnerable and marginalised groups have opportunities to benefit from sustainable Blue Economy activities.
The results are significant:
• 220,294 people accessed complementary livelihood activities, including 114,097 women—surpassing the project target of 217,000.
• Ksh3.37 billion in grants was disbursed to support community-led development.
• 1,263 community projects were funded across 93 administrative wards in five coastal counties.
• 93,366 community members received training—104% of the target, including 51,003 women, more than double the number targeted.
Beyond the numbers, this inclusive approach has strengthened community ownership, local capacity and the ability of communities to sustain development gains.

Read more about KEMFSED’s Community-Driven Development approach and results: KEMFSED CDD Brief_https://kemfsed.org/project-brief-no-1/

16/09/2026

The development of Kenya’s first Marine Spatial Plan (MSP), now nearing completion, is among the key achievements of the Kenya Marine Fisheries and Socio-Economic Development (KEMFSED) Project.

KEMFSED National Project Coordinator Susan Otieno joined the MSP Secretariat in a critical technical meeting with the State Department for Lands and Physical Planning to discuss the final steps towards public review and approval of the Draft MSP.

The MSP is an initiative of the State Department for the Blue Economy and Fisheries, which established a multisectoral MSP Secretariat under KEMFSED to coordinate and manage the planning process. The Secretariat brings together experts from across the blue economy, including national planners and representatives of relevant government agencies and institutions.

The planning and approval process is guided by the Physical and Land Use Planning Act. This law requires major spatial plans to be submitted to the National Director of Planning for technical review, public participation and approval before implementation.

The meeting will therefore lay the technical groundwork for the formal handover of the Draft MSP to the Directorate of Planning and its subsequent review and public participation.
“A large part of our ocean space has remained untapped and unplanned. MSP provides the lens through which we can see, plan and sustainably harness these opportunities,” Ms. Otieno said in her opening remarks.
“Marine Spatial Planning will not only drive growth of the blue economy, but will ensure that this growth takes place in a sustainable way,” she added.

The National Director of Physical Planning, Moses Mugendi, said his team has been providing oversight for the process and would now take over the plan through the remaining legal processes.
Among the experts attending the meeting is Prof John Njiru, a sector expert and former Principal Secretary.

“Continued engagement of scientists and experts from across all blue economy sectors is critical to ensure that the MSP remains regularly updated and responsive to emerging issues," said Prof Njiru, who was among the team that conceptualized the MSP process.

Other speakers included National Land Commission representative Patrick Waweru, who said NLC has been involved to safeguard public interest during planning and implementation.
The meeting was also supported by the Nature Conservancy (TNC), a partner in the MSP process, which was represented by planner Zachary Maritim.

In this photo: Patrick Waweru (NLC), Elizabeth Mueni (KEMFSED Component 1 Lead), Titus Musungu (Lead Planner, Geodev Kenya), Dr Jacqueline Uku (MSP Coordinator), Susan Otieno (Director Aquaculture & National Project Coordinator KEMFSED), Prof John Ntiba (sector expert and guest speaker), Moses Mugendi (National Director of Planning) and Zachary Maritim (The Nature Conservancy).

27/08/2026

20/08/2026

At KEMFSED, we are delighted to see our catalyst support to our strategic partner, Crabs Alive, bearing fruit through expanded partnerships that are promoting mariculture production and benefitting coastal communities.

20/08/2026

20/08/2026

Ms Susan Otieno has been appointed National Project Coordinator (NPC) of the KEMFSED Project, succeeding Patrick Kiara, who has retired from public service.
Ms Otieno, a fisheries expert, previously served as the Deputy Project Coordinator of KEMFSED. In her new role, she will lead the Project through its next phase and build on the progress made during Mr Kiara’s tenure.
Mr Kiara thanked the Principal Secretary for the State Department for Blue Economy and Fisheries, Betsy Njagi, for the confidence, support and guidance extended to him during his tenure. He also expressed appreciation to the World Bank and other development partners, county governments, technical institutions, consultants, contractors and other stakeholders for their collaboration and support in implementing KEMFSED.
“I thank the World Bank and other partners for walking with us and for the partnership that enabled us to implement KEMFSED,” he said. “To County Governments, technical institutions, consultants, contractors and all our stakeholders, thank you for your cooperation and support.”
He also commended the dedication of the KEMFSED national and county teams and encouraged them to extend the same commitment and support to Ms Otieno.
“I am confident that Ms Susan Otieno will build on the work undertaken and continue to strengthen the collaboration between the Government of Kenya and the World Bank towards the successful completion of the Project."
We thank Mr Kiara for his leadership and dedicated service and wish him a fulfilling retirement. We congratulate Ms Otieno on her appointment and wish her success as she takes on her new role.

17/08/2026

We're glad to have supported the partnership with Crabs Alive, enabling 7 community groups in Kilifi and Lamu to benefit from the lucrative mud crab farming