People Earn Money Through Fishing In Kisumu County

It is incomplete to talk about the history of Kisumu without mentioning Monasa Nets Kenya Limited, the family business that spans three generations in Kisumu City.

From a wooden shack selling fishing lines on the shores of Kisumu (then Port Florence) in 1900, the family business has grown to become the largest distributor of fishing gear and marine safety equipment in the Great Lakes region.

Founded by Bimji Ismael Charania, he passed the baton to his son Miraly Bimji Charania who expanded it before leaving it at the hands of his three sons.

The elder Nasrulah Miraly took full control of the family business in the ‘60s with his brother John joining him in the 70s.

The two refer to themselves as “the fishing gear people”, a name that they deserve, what with 100 years of experience.

Business Daily caught up with the Miralys who shared their experience of running an establishment which is more of an institutional souvenir than just a family business.

“When my grandfather started the business of providing fishing gear in Lake Victoria, things were very different from the way we know them today,” says Mr Nasrulah Miraly, the managing director of Monasa.

“Most of the fishermen on Lake Victoria were individual operators and the equipment was primitive. Commercialisation was non-existent and most fishermen used sticks and spears to get some fish for their families or exchange at the market.”

Over the past century, the industry has changed, transforming the lives of the people who depend on it.

Miraly’s grandfather pioneered the distribution of steel fishing hooks among the lake’s fishing community.

The industry then moved into nets made of cotton and then flex became the dominant raw materials but these were limiting to the fishing industry.

The invention of nylon in the 1960s and the adoption of the fabric in the making of nets was a turning point for the growing industry. Nylon was durable, cheap, strong, and resistant to rot.

“At first we imported the material from Japan but then the cost of production there became higher and we moved to Korea and then to Taiwan and now our main supplier is China,” explains Mr Nasrulah.