Fisheries Management and Development Act
2. Interpretation
2. Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—"access agreement or arrangement" means any agreement or arrangement entered into pursuant to section 128;"Act" includes regulations or other forms of subsidiary legislation made hereunder;"agent" means any person or unit appointed by the Board or Director-General to execute designated functions under this Act, or such other agent as may be appointed in accordance with section 17(1)(c);"aircraft" means any propelled or remotely controlled airborne device capable of sustained movement through the atmosphere and includes helicopters and monitoring devices;"artisanal fisheries" means small scale traditional fisheries that may be carried out for subsistence or commercial purposes in which the owner is directly involved in the day-to-day running of the enterprise and relatively small amounts of capital are used;"artisanal fishing vessel" means any local fishing vessel, canoe or un-decked vessel with a length overall of not more than ten meters, which is motorised or not motorised by an outboard or inboard engine not exceeding forty horsepower, or powered by sails or paddles, but does not include decked or undecked semi-industrial fishing vessels or vessels used for recreational fishing;"Authority" means the Fish Marketing Authority established by section 198;"aquaculture" means the cultivation, propagation or farming of aquatic organisms, including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants whether from eggs, spawn, spat, seed or other means or by rearing fish lawfully taken from the wild or lawfully imported into Kenya, or by other similar process;"aquaculture establishment" means any area, enclosure, premise or structure set up or used on land or in water for the purposes of aquaculture, and includes any cage or raft or other system;"aquaculture resources" means live fish and marine plants cultivated under aquaculture;"authorized officer" includes a fisheries officer, a disciplines officer of the service and any person appointed by the Board under section 18;"automatic location communicator" means a device approved by the Director which is placed on a fishing vessel and is designed to transmit, whether independently or in conjunction with another device or devices, information or data concerning position, fishing and such other activities of the vessel as may be required and includes a mobile transceiver unit;"barter" means trade of fish and fish products by two or more persons without use of money;"beach management unit" means an organization of fishers, fish traders, boat owners, fish processors and other beach stakeholders who traditionally depend on fisheries activities for their livelihoods;"Board" means the Fisheries Service Board established by section 10;"Board of Directors" means the Board of Directors of the Fish Marketing Authority established under section 201;"buy" includes—(a)barter;(b)purchase;(c)attempt to barter;(d)attempt to purchase;(e)receive on account or consignment;(f)receive in order to send, forward or deliver for sale;(g)broker a sale;(h)purchase or barter for future goods or for any consideration of value; and(i)purchase or barter as an agent for another person;"buyer" means any person who buys;"Cabinet Secretary" means Cabinet Secretary for the time being responsible for fisheries;"carrier vessel" means a vessel that carries fish that have been harvested by another vessel but does not engage in fishing itself;"commercial aquaculture" includes any aquaculture operation resulting or intending or appearing to result in the sale or trade of any fish which is a product of such aquaculture operation, including semi-commercial aquaculture;"Controller" means the Food Safety Controller appointed under the Food and Feed Safety Control Co-ordination Act;"Council" means the Kenya Fisheries Council established under section 6;"crew member" means a worker who is part of a team working on a fishing vessel, towards a common function, whether paid or unpaid, other than the master, a pilot or shore-based persons carrying out work aboard a fishing vessel and fisheries observers;"dealing in fish" includes collecting, transporting, storing, transshipping, buying or selling fish or fish products for purposes of trade;"designated Fishing Port" means fishing port established under section 50(1)b;"Director-General" means the person appointed as such under section 15;"export" in relation to fish or fish products means to—(a)send or take out of Kenya; or(b)carry or transport anything out of the country;"export facility" means any building or vessel or area in which fish and fish products is handled, prepared and stored for export purposes, including the surroundings under the control of the same management;"farming" in relation to any fish means the breeding, cultivating and rearing of any such fish or the cultivating of any such vegetation, as the case may be;"fish" means any marine or aquatic animal or plant, living or not and processed or not, and any of their parts and includes any shell, coral, reptile and marine mammal;"fisher" means every person employed or engaged in any capacity or carrying out an occupation on board any fishing vessel, including persons working on board who are paid on the basis of a share of the catch but excluding pilots, naval personnel, other persons in the permanent service of a government, shore-based persons carrying out work aboard a fishing vessel and fisheries observers;"fish landing station" means a point on the shore of any waters or coastline of which the Director-General has by notice in the gazette designated as a point to land fish;"fish processing" means any process that adds value to or preserves fish and includes the cutting up, dismembering, cleaning, sorting, icing, freezing, drying, chilling, salting, gutting, smoking, canning or any other action taken to alter the shape, appearance or form of fish from that in which the fish is when first taken from its natural habitat;"fish processing establishment" means any place other than a licensed fishing vessel where fish are canned, dried, gutted, salted, iced, chilled, frozen, smoked or otherwise processed or stored but does not include a restaurant, eating place, hotel, or place where fish is prepared for immediate retail sale or consumption;"fish product" means any product or part thereof (including oil) obtained by fish processing, and intended for use as human food, animal feed or raw material ingredient in the manufacture of other commodities of commercial or ornamental value;"fisheries officer" means the Director-General and any employee of the Service described in the first schedule;"fishery" means—(a)one or more stocks of fish, or parts thereof existing in a delineated area, which can be treated as a unit for the purposes of conservation, development and management, taking into account geographical, scientific, technical, customary, recreational, economic and other relevant characteristics; or(b)any fishing for such stocks;"fishery resources" or "fisheries resources" means any fishery or stock, species or habitat of fish or part thereof;"fishing" means—(a)searching for or taking of fish;(b)the attempted searching for or taking of fish;(c)engaging in any other activity which can reasonably be expected to result in the locating or taking of fish;(d)placing, searching for or recovering any fish aggregating device or associated equipment including radio beacons;(e)any operation on Kenya fishery water or on the high seas in support of or in preparation for any activity described in paragraphs (a), (b), (c) or (d);(f)use of an aircraft which is related to any activity described in paragraphs (a), (b), (c) or (d), except for flights in emergencies involving the health or safety of a crew member or the safety of a vessel, but does not include aquaculture or the transportation of fish;"fishing gear" means any equipment, implement, structure, construction, installation or other article that can be used in the act of fishing, whether or not it is used in connection with a vessel, including any fishing net, line, float, cork, buoy, basket, light, winch, boat or aircraft;"fishing operations" includes fishing, supply of provisions to fishing vessels, and the handling and processing of fish up to the time it is first landed;"fishing port" means a place on a lake shore or sea front where fishing vessels may resort for shelter, servicing, loading and off-loading of fish and fishing equipment;"fishing related activity" means any activity in support of, or in preparation for, fishing including the—(a)transshipping of fish to or from any vessel;(b)landing, packaging, processing, handling or transporting of fish that have not been previously landed at port;(c)provision of personnel, fuel, gear and other supplies at sea or performing other activities in support of fishing operations;(d)exporting fish or fish products from the country; and(e)attempting or preparing to do any of the above;"fishing vessel" means any vessel used for, equipped to be used for, or of a type that is normally used for, fishing or fishing related activities;"flag State" in relation to a vessel that is not a Kenya fishing vessel means the State in which the vessel is registered, provided it is registered in only one State;"foreign fishing vessel" means any fishing vessel other than a Kenya fishing vessel and includes any support vessel, notwithstanding that the vessel may be registered or licensed or required to be registered or licensed in Kenya pursuant to this Act or under the Merchant Shipping Act (Cap. 389) and Kenya Maritime Authority Act (Cap. 370);"genetic resource" includes germplasm of plants, animals or other organisms containing useful characters of actual or potential value;"Government" means the Government of Kenya;"high seas" means the waters beyond areas under the jurisdiction of any State including the territorial sea, exclusive economic zone or other zone of national jurisdiction;"illegal fishing" includes—(a)activities conducted by national or foreign vessels in waters under the jurisdiction of a state without the permission of that state, or in contravention of its laws and regulations;(b)activities conducted by vessels flying the flag of states that are parties to a relevant regional fisheries management organization but operate in contravention of the conservation and management measures adopted by that organization and by which those states are bound or relevant provisions of international law; and(c)activities carried out in violation of national laws or international laws or international obligations, including those undertaken by co-operating states to a relevant regional fisheries management organization;"import" means the bringing into Kenya or Kenya Fishery waters of any fish or fish product and aquatic flora from any place outside Kenya;"industrial fishing vessel"means a decked fishing vessel with an overall length of twenty meters or greater and with an inboard engine;"international agreement" includes any treaty, convention, or other legally binding instrument, including bilateral, multilateral regional agreements or arrangements that Kenya is a party pursuant to the Treaty Making and Ratification Act (Cap. 4D);"international conservation and management measures" means measures which are notified in the Gazette in accordance with section 31;"Kenya fishery waters" includes all maritime zones declared in the Maritime Zones Act (Cap. 371) internal waters, Lakes, riverine systems and any other waters including intertidal, inland and riverine over which Kenya exercises or claims jurisdiction;"Kenya fishing vessel" means a fishing vessel which is registered under the Merchant Shipping Act (Cap. 389) and does not hold any other registration, or is wholly owned and crewed by residents of Kenya or by other persons gazetted by the Service as persons who traditionally fish in Kenya fishery waters, and which meets such other conditions as may be prescribed;"Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute" means the institute established under the Science and Technology Act (Cap. 511);"landing" means bringing any fish or fish product to the harbour, port or beach from within or outside the Kenya fishery waters and offloading;"licensing period" means the period of time during which any licence or authorization issued in accordance with this Act is valid;"locally based foreign fishing vessel" means any foreign fishing vessel which—(a)based in and fully controlled or operated from Kenya;(b)fishes exclusively in the Kenya fishery waters; and(c)lands all of its catch or a substantial part of its catch in Kenya;"master" means a person in command or in charge or apparently in command of the vessel, aircraft or a vehicle, but does not include a pilot on board a vessel solely for the purpose of navigation;"management" means an integrated process of information gathering, analysis, planning, consultation, decision making, allocation of resources, formulation and implementation of rules and regulations which govern fisheries activities in order to ensure the continued production of the resources and accomplishment of other fisheries objectives;"multi-annual control plan" has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Food and Feed Safety Control Co-ordination Act;"operator" means any person responsible for the operations of, directs or controls a vessel, including the owner, charterer and master of the vessel;"person" means any natural person or business enterprise and includes a corporation, partnership, cooperative, association and any foreign government, its subdivisions or agents;"pollution" shall have the meaning assigned to it under the Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act (Cap. 387);"recreational fishing" means non-commercial fishing by an individual for leisure or relaxation;"sell" includes—(a)any method of disposition for consideration of anything which has value or which can be exchanged for cash or barter;(b)disposition to an agent for sale on consignment;(c)offering or attempting to dispose of for value or receiving or having in possession for disposal for value or displaying for disposal for value, or sending or delivering for disposal for value or causing or permitting to be sending or delivering for disposal for value, or causing or permitting to be disposed for value, offered or displayed for disposal for value; and(d)disposition by way of raffle, lottery, or other game of chance under the Betting Control and Licensing Act (Cap. 131); and "sell" and "sold "have a corresponding meaning;"semi-industrial fishing vessel" includes—(a)a decked fishing vessel with an overall length of not less than ten meters and not more than fifty GRT and not powered by an inboard engine; and(b)an undecked fishing vessel with an overall length of not less than ten meters and not more than twenty meters with less than fifty GRT and powered by engines of at least forty horse power;"Service" means the Kenya Fisheries Service established under section 7;"subsistence fishing" means local or non-commercial fisheries, oriented not primarily for recreation but for the procurement of fish for consumption by the fishers, their families and community;"support vessel" means any vessel carrying out operations in connection with and in support of a fishing vessel including transport, supply or fishing;"surveillance" means checking and ensuring compliance with control measures imposed under this Act in fishing and fishing related activities;"test fishing operation" means any fishing operation undertaken over a limited period of time with the approval of the Director–General for the purpose of testing the feasibility of commercial fishing operations with a view to establishing fishery operations, and not for commercial purposes;"territorial waters" shall have the meaning assigned to it under the Maritime Zones Act (Cap. 371) and includes the territorial sea;"transshipment" means transferring fish or fish products to or from any vessel, whether or not the fish or fish products have first been taken on board the vessel from which the fish is passed;"unregulated fishing" includes—(a)activities conducted by vessels without nationality, or by those flying the flag state not party to that organization, or by a fishing identity in a manner that is not consistent with the conservation and management measure; and(b)activities carried in areas or fish stocks in relation to which there are no applicable conservation or management measures in where the fishing activity is conducted;"unreported fishing" includes activities which the relevant authority has not been notified;"vehicle" means any car, truck, van, bus, trailer or other powered land conveyance;"vessel monitoring system" includes a satellite based reporting system capable of monitoring the position and activities of fishing vessels.(Act No. 21 of 2026, Sch.)Source: Kenya Law