The island is smaller than a football field with 2,000sqm area, but hundreds of fishermen, along with their families, live on the island. So, it’s considered as one of the most crowded islands on the planet.

Migingo, the densely populated island in Lake Victoria, was the centre of a low-level territorial dispute between Kenya and Uganda. Residents of this Kenyan island are basically fishermen, as a group of fishermen started living in Migingo about two decades ago.

Although Migingo is a tiny island, there are two police stations, a church, a mosque, a casino, four pubs, a hotel, more than 12 restaurants, a pharmacy, a salon and several brothels on it!
The island – which houses 131 inhabitants (as per 2009 census reports, others place it at around 500) and caused ‘Africa’s smallest war’ – has emerged as a fishing hub teeming with Nile perch – a profitable export to the European Union. The waters surrounding the island are rich in Nile perch.

Both Kenya and Uganda claimed ownership of the island in the past. As the profitable fishing waters attracted pirates, Uganda responded first by instituting costly entry permits and arresting fishermen without permits. Later, Kenya, too, claimed ownership of the island, prompting Uganda to send Marines to Migingo. Foreign ministers of the two neighbouring countries visited the island before the conflict escalated and in 2009, a demarcation line attributing it to Kenya was set.

Despite its size, concerns about poverty and over fishing still persist in Migingo.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das