Blue Economy

Blue Economy (Kiswahili: Uchumi wa bahari) is a theme of the Economic Development pillar. It covers economic activity based on or next to the ocean: fisheries, aquaculture and mariculture, seaweed, fish ports and cold chains, and the mangroves, reefs and marine protected areas they depend on. Kenya’s coastline is about 536 kilometres long and holds about 61,271 hectares of mangroves.¹ Artisanal fishers on the coast landed an estimated 36,983 tonnes of fish in 2023 from 3,174 vessels, most of them wooden boats making single-day trips.²

What this page is for

Please add the fisheries, mariculture, conservation and port projects, data and stakeholder views on the coast’s ocean economy that you know about.

Blue Economy on the coast today

Most coastal fishing is small-scale and close to shore. The richest inshore grounds lie around the Lamu archipelago, Ungwana Bay, the North Kenya Banks and Malindi Bank, and in 2023 only five Kenyan longline vessels fished for tuna in the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission area. Kwale has 40 landing sites used by 23 beach management units; its plan says catches stay low because fishers rely on near-shore waters, and that without cold storage they often sell perishable fish cheaply.³ Lamu’s plan reports declining fish stocks from inshore overfishing and sees deep-sea fishing as an opportunity.⁴ Nationally, the Principal Secretary for the Blue Economy and Fisheries put fisheries and aquaculture at about 0.6 to 0.7 per cent of GDP in 2026, with total fish production (inland and marine) of 168,424 tonnes worth KES 39.6 billion in 2024.⁵

Lamu holds about 61 per cent of Kenya’s mangroves, and the State Department for Forestry estimates national mangrove loss at about 0.7 per cent a year. At Gazi Bay in Kwale, the Mikoko Pamoja community project has restored and protected more than 117 hectares of mangroves since 2013 and earned about US$210,000 from carbon credits, according to the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI).⁶ Seaweed farming began at Kibuyuni near Shimoni, set up by KMFRI as Kenya’s first model farm in 2012; farmers there exported 100 tonnes to Europe in 2019.⁷

The Kenya Wildlife Service manages marine parks and reserves along the coast. Watamu Marine National Park and Reserve was gazetted in 1968, and in 1979 the Watamu and Malindi marine protected areas were designated a UNESCO Man and the Biosphere reserve, which the service describes as the third such marine designation in the world.⁸ In Kwale, Kisite Marine National Park is a 28 square kilometre no-take zone, next to the 11 square kilometre Mpunguti reserve, where controlled artisanal fishing is allowed.⁹

Plans and policy

The Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs launched the National Blue Economy Strategy 2025-2030 in February 2026, linked to Kenya Vision 2030 and the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda. It aims to raise annual blue economy earnings from about KES 40 billion to KES 350 billion by 2030 and fish production from 163,000 to more than 450,000 tonnes. It lists five coastal landing sites worth KES 1 billion, in Kwale, Mombasa, Kilifi, Tana River and Lamu, and puts a marine spatial plan and a tuna management strategy under review.¹⁰ The World Bank’s US$100 million Marine Fisheries and Socio-Economic Development Project (KEMFSED), approved in March 2020 and due to close on 30 September 2026, aims to improve management of priority fisheries and mariculture and widen livelihoods in coastal communities.¹¹

The KES 2.6 billion Shimoni Fish Port in Kwale, designed for up to 50,000 tonnes of fish a year, had been handed to the Kenya Ports Authority by July 2025, which plans to let a private firm run it; the Liwatoni fishing complex in Mombasa has been delayed since March 2021.¹² County plans focus on landing sites and the cold chain: Kwale on landing-site and cold-storage gaps, Lamu on reviving ice plants and cold stores at landing sites,¹³ and Mombasa on securing title for landing sites against land grabbing.¹⁴

Who is involved

The Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs and its State Department for the Blue Economy and Fisheries set national policy, with the Kenya Fisheries Service and KMFRI handling fisheries data, research and monitoring. The Kenya Ports Authority holds the new Shimoni port and the Kenya Wildlife Service manages the marine parks. County fisheries departments work with beach management units at landing sites. Community groups such as Mikoko Pamoja, researchers and the World Bank are also active, as are Wetlands International in Lamu’s mangroves.¹⁵

Open questions

Who will fish the deep sea? The government wants Kenyans to move from inshore to commercial deep-sea fishing, and the Principal Secretary says locally registered vessels must have at least 45 per cent Kenyan crew. In 2021 fishers in Lamu and Kilifi alleged illegal fishing by foreign trawlers, while the then Agriculture Cabinet Secretary, Peter Munya, said all vessels in Kenyan waters were licensed.¹⁶

Can ports and fishers share the sea? More than 4,600 Lamu fishers sued over dredging for Lamu port, and in 2018 the High Court in Malindi awarded KES 1.76 billion. In 2024 the Kenya Ports Authority said it had verified over 4,000 claimants and would pay KES 1.1 billion following a Court of Appeal directive, while Wetlands International linked dumped dredge sand to stressed mangroves nearby.

Will new fish ports be used? The Kenya Ports Authority says Shimoni will serve local and international fishers and cut post-harvest waste, but in mid-2025 it was finished and still waiting for an operator, and Business Daily reported that Kenya loses fishing revenue to Mauritius and Seychelles for lack of port capacity.

Coverage the plan expects

• artisanal fisheries
• aquaculture and mariculture
• fish landing sites and cold chain
• marine protected areas
• mangroves and blue carbon
• seaweed farming
• deep sea fishing licensing
• fisheries benefits and compensation around Lamu port

Sources

• Kenya National Report to the IOTC Scientific Committee 2024, Kenya Fisheries Service and KMFRI, 2024
• Kenya unveils blue economy strategy targeting KSh 350 billion in revenue, Swara, 2026
• Marine Fisheries and Socio-Economic Development Project, World Bank, 2020 to 2026
• Kwale County Integrated Development Plan 2023-2027, County Government of Kwale, 2023
• Lamu County Integrated Development Plan 2023-2027, County Government of Lamu, plan period 2023-2027
• PS Njagi: How we’ll turn the tide to hit Sh300bn blue economy target, The Star, 2026
• Kenya eyes larger-scale mangrove restoration through partnerships, Capital FM, 2026
• Kisite Mpunguti Marine National Park and Reserve, Kenya Wildlife Service