Court judgments mount as Fisheries Department faces growing legal liabilities
Documents from the department’s latest performance report show that out of a total of Sh320 million awarded by courts, only Sh10 million has been cleared by the end of June.
The State Department for the Blue Economy and Fisheries is staring at a massive legal debt amounting to Sh310 million, largely due to unpaid court judgments.
Documents from the department’s latest performance report show that out of a total of Sh320 million awarded by courts, only Sh10 million has been cleared by the end of June.
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The unpaid amount continues to attract interest, placing the ministry at risk of enforcement actions and further straining its limited resources.
A majority of these liabilities arise from long-standing employment and contractual disputes involving agencies under the ministry, notably the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), and from stalled infrastructure projects.
KMFRI’s work revolves around “marine and freshwater fisheries, aquaculture, environmental and ecological studies, and marine research, including chemical and physical oceanography”, aimed at providing scientific knowledge for sustainable exploitation of marine resources.
One of the largest liabilities recorded was a Sh158 million award resulting from a collective bargaining dispute between KMFRI and its workers’ union.
The case, initially filed in 2016, was concluded in 2022 on appeal, compelling the institute to pay workers’ salary arrears and benefits following years of unresolved negotiations.
Another costly case involved a former KMFRI employee, Ezekiel Okemwa, who successfully sued the institution for unlawful dismissal.
The court ordered that he be paid Sh53.4 million with an interest rate of 14 per cent dating back to 2016, pushing the total obligation in the two cases to over Sh115 million.
In a separate case, the High Court in Homa Bay ruled that the ministry must pay Okeno & Sons Building & Construction Sh47 million for completed work on a fisheries infrastructure project.
Despite the ruling, only Sh10 million has been paid so far, leaving the balance unsettled.
These outstanding awards mirror a wider challenge across public institutions, many of which are struggling to pay long-pending judgments while operating under tight budgets.
The Treasury has been urging ministries and state agencies to prioritise settlement of court decrees to prevent an increase in pending bills, which stood at Sh526 billion by midyear.
Failure to honour court-ordered payments often results in penalties, garnishee orders, or attachment proceedings against government accounts - moves that could cripple daily operations.
For KMFRI, which runs research stations along the coast and inland lakes, such actions could disrupt its research and conservation work if funds are diverted to settle court debts.
The rising legal debt comes at a time when the department is under pressure to invest in critical blue economy projects such as the rehabilitation of fish landing sites and the expansion of aquaculture initiatives.
Officials warn that delayed payments may slow down progress in marine development and research programmes essential to the sector’s growth.
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