Ksh3.3 Billion in Grants Drive Kenya's Blue Economy Growth Along Coast

The Shimoni fish market on Kenya's south coast used to close by noon — not because business was done, but because there was no more ice and the catch could not be kept safely. The ice plant that opened in March, funded partly by a blue economy grant from the State Department for Fisheries, has extended the market's working day by six hours and increased the volume of fish reaching Mombasa's hotels in sellable condition by an estimated 40 percent.

Multiply that kind of incremental infrastructure investment across 400 kilometres of coastline and you begin to understand what a Ksh3.3 billion grant package can actually accomplish — not in dramatic transformations, but in the accumulated effect of ice plants, cold rooms, improved jetties, fingerling hatcheries, and fish processing training programmes that make coastal fishing communities measurably more productive.

Principal Secretary Ali Noor Hassan confirmed the figures at a Mombasa blue economy investor forum this week, saying that total fish production along Kenya's coast and inland lakes has risen 18 percent year-on-year in H1 2026 — the strongest growth reading in the sector since 2019.

The Lamu fishing community has been among the biggest beneficiaries. Long overshadowed by the Mombasa and Shimoni fishing areas, Lamu's waters are rich and relatively underexploited. Two new aquaculture projects — one growing sea cucumbers for the Asian export market, another producing oysters for Nairobi's premium restaurant sector — have created over 300 direct jobs in the past 18 months, most of them for young people from Lamu Island and Mokowe.

Processing remains the critical value addition opportunity. Kenya currently exports most of its marine catch in semi-processed or fresh form, leaving the premium value-added product (canned, smoked, marinated) to be captured by South African and European processors. Two new processing facilities planned for Malindi and Kilifi, with combined capacity of 40 tonnes per day, are expected to begin operations in 2027.