On the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya, Rhoda Ongoche Akech picked up a fishing net for the first time in 2002, at the age of 39. In doing so, the mother of seven crossed a line that her community had long considered absolute: women did not fish. Today, at 61, she is part of a quietly growing shift in which economic necessity and declining fish stocks are dismantling cultural restrictions that shaped life on the lake for generations.
Taboos Rooted in Tradition
Fishing communities around Lake Victoria have historically barred women from the water entirely. Cultural belief held that menstruating women would drive away fish, and male fishermen were forbidden from sleeping with their wives the night before a fishing expedition. The rules were not merely social — they were understood as practical safeguards for the catch. Women's role was fixed on land: buying fish from the men and reselling it, earning roughly 500 Kenyan shillings a day as fishmongers.
What changed Akech's mind was a group of women from Homabay County who arrived in the village of Kagwel in 2001 and went out on the lake themselves. The sight was enough. She joined the following year and, according to Al Jazeera English, fished alone among the women of Kagwel for 16 years before another woman joined her.
Climate Pressure Accelerates Change
The environmental backdrop has grown steadily more urgent. Rising water temperatures in Lake Victoria have encouraged algae blooms and depleted oxygen levels, reducing the fish available to catch. Temperatures are projected to rise by a further 0.5°C over the next 10 to 20 years, pushing the lake's surface water to between 29.5°C and 31°C — conditions that researchers warn will intensify the pressure on already stressed fish populations.
As catches shrink, the economics of staying on the sidelines have become harder to justify. Faith Awuor Ang'awo, a 37-year-old mother of four, joined the fishing team in 2018. Dorcas Awiyo, 22, with three children, followed in 2020. Janet Ndweyi, 42 and a mother of two, came on board in 2022. Each made the same calculation: the income from fishing, while variable, outpaces what they could earn selling fish caught by others.
What the Numbers Look Like
On a productive day at Kagwel Beach, boat owners take home between 6,000 and 8,000 Kenyan shillings. Crew members earn between 500 and 800 shillings, while fishmongers can make up to 1,000 shillings. The earnings are not guaranteed — the lake's declining yields see to that — but they represent a meaningful step up from the fixed margins of the fish trade.
The cultural resistance has not disappeared entirely. William Okedo, a 57-year-old village elder in Kagwel, and fishermen such as Dalmas Onyango, 35, represent a community still navigating the tension between inherited practice and present reality. But the women already on the water are not waiting for consensus. For Akech and those who followed her, the decision was, above all, a practical one.
