Strengthening Fisheries Governance in Lake Victoria, Kenya: Institutional Gaps and Pathways for Sustainable Fisheries Management

Lake Victoria supports one of the world’s most productive inland fisheries, sustaining the food security and livelihoods of approximately 40 million people across Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Despite its ecological and socioeconomic importance, the fishery continues to experience decline driven not only by overfishing and habitat degradation, but also by persistent institutional and governance failures operating at national, devolved, and transboundary levels. This paper presents a systematic review of scientific and policy literature on fisheries governance in Lake Victoria, with particular emphasis on Kenya’s institutional framework. Drawing from peer-reviewed literature, policy documents, institutional reports, and grey literature sourced from Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and institutional repositories, the review applies an analytical framework based on four governance dimensions: regulatory coherence, institutional capacity, knowledge integration, and coordination effectiveness. The review reveals that fisheries governance in Kenya is constrained by overlapping institutional mandates, weak co-management structures, inadequate incorporation of local and indigenous ecological knowledge, and limited transboundary enforcement coordination, all of which contribute to regulatory inefficiencies and reduced management effectiveness in Lake Victoria. The paper further synthesizes the institutional drivers of these governance gaps and highlights evidence-based pathways for reform. The findings contribute to ongoing fisheries policy debates in Kenya and inform broader efforts toward resilient, inclusive, and sustainable blue economy governance in sub-Saharan Africa.