Villagers standing up against illegal fishing activities at Kimbiji ward

In working against the illegal activities along the Indian Ocean which has taken a lead in the villages away from the powers the villagers at Buyuni and Mti Mweupe decided to have a joint power in destroying the illegal activities by forming a cooperative society which will be dealing with patrolling, reporting and conservation of the Indian Ocean Coast. This was achieved by having election to have an administrative team to report to and to disseminate the information to higher authorities.

Buyuni and Mti Mweupe are located in Kimbiji Ward which is 52 km away from the coast of Kigamboni. We started our journey at 9:00am and reach Kimbiji at 10:47am in order to attend the election for Coastal Management Unit of the society at Buyuni and Mti Mweupe which was initiated by Youth Vision of Kigamboni where I am working as an intern. The election was held at the playground of Buyuni Primary School whereby a total of 87 villagers attended. This was not my very first experience for I have been exposed to this kind of activities during my field activities when I was at university; however this proves to be a different scenario to my fellow Jema whom it was her first experience.

At 11:02 AM the election process was officially started, I and the other member from Youth Vision of Kigamboni participated fully in making sure that there was no cheating during the elections in assurance of this took lead in making sure people cast their vote secretly without exposing to their fellows, whereby the villagers also trusted us to count the votes and announce the end results.

During the nomination time all people who raised hands to be running for different posts were men, no female raised up hands, I anticipated this kind of scenario and I raised up my hand and asked the election committee chairperson if I could say two to three words, when he gave me a chance to talk I stood up and urge the ladies to raise up their hands and voices, nominate themselves and encourage them on the benefits of raising up and standing for their own views inspite of letting men to lead them all the time, so they stood up and competed. This proved to be a good start as in a board committee of 20 peoples there were only 8 ladies. We even managed to get a lady in higher position of Chairperson going by the name of Ms. Jiheshimu Mgeni.


This event will remain in my memory as far as I could be able to remember for I was given an honor to announce the final results, and declare the new leaders.Its women and the environmental protection,Ladies keep your heads up !



Joeline Ezekiel