Key Overview
- Kenya is constructing the National Mariculture Resource and Training Centre (NAMARET) in Shimoni, Kwale County, at a cost of Sh1.88 billion ($14.5 million), making it the largest facility of its kind in East Africa.
- The centre will produce up to five million marine larvae annually, including seaweed, mangroves, shellfish, finfish, and prawns, for distribution to coastal farmers.
- Financing comes jointly from the national government and the World Bank under the Kenya Marine Fisheries and Socio-Economic Development (KEMFSED) project.
- NAMARET will house a marine hatchery, a research laboratory, and a training centre designed to equip farmers with modern aquaculture skills.
- Kenya recently launched its National Blue Economy Strategy 2025–2030, projecting the sector’s earnings to reach approximately Sh350 billion by 2030, and is targeting 240,000 youth jobs in fisheries.
Kenya is making its most significant investment yet in coastal aquaculture with the construction of a Sh1.88 billion mariculture facility in Kwale County that officials say will anchor sustainable marine farming across the region and open new economic pathways for communities that have long depended on dwindling wild fish stocks.
The details of the National Mariculture Resource and Training Centre — known as NAMARET — were disclosed by Paul Orina, chief executive of the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), during the 21st episode of the government’s public engagement programme, Sema na Spox — Bonga na Gava, hosted by Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura at KMFRI’s headquarters in Mombasa. Once completed, the centre will be the largest mariculture facility in East Africa, capable of producing up to five million marine larvae annually.
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A Facility Built for Scale
NAMARET is being constructed on a 15-acre site in the south-eastern coastal town of Shimoni, Kwale County, and is financed jointly by the national government and the World Bank as part of the Blue Economy Flagship Projects under the Kenya Marine Fisheries and Socio-Economic Development (KEMFSED) programme. The KEMFSED project, backed by a Sh10 billion World Bank loan secured during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration, covers Kenya’s five coastal counties — Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Tana River, and Lamu — and aims to boost sustainable fish stock productivity while strengthening the integrity of marine ecosystems.
The facility is designed as an integrated complex with three core components. The marine hatchery will produce larvae and fingerlings for a range of species including seaweed, mangroves, shellfish, finfish, milkfish, rabbitfish, and prawns, all for distribution to coastal farmers. A research laboratory will support scientific and technological requirements for mariculture development. And a training centre will equip farmers with modern aquaculture skills, a combination that KMFRI chief executive Orina described as critical to ensuring the facility’s long-term impact.
“The centre will anchor sustainable aquaculture while opening up new economic opportunities for coastal communities,” Orina said.
According to SeafoodSource’s reporting on the KEMFSED project, the end goal is to ensure sustainable fish stock productivity while attracting additional private investment into efficient utilisation of marine fisheries and coastal aquaculture, as well as enhancing value addition along the sector’s value chain. Mariculture was introduced into Kenya in the 1970s but has failed to gain traction as an alternative to capture fisheries because of inadequate investment and technical expertise — a gap NAMARET is explicitly designed to fill.
The World Bank’s project appraisal document for KEMFSED described NAMARET as addressing “the need to strengthen the technological and skills capacity in mariculture in Kenya,” noting that the facility will support emerging mariculture enterprises seeking to work with community outgrowers by providing training, technical demonstration, and seed supply for species including mud crab, prawns, artemia, sea cucumber, and red seaweed.
Why Mariculture Matters for Kenya’s Coast
The economic logic behind NAMARET is grounded in a fundamental imbalance. Kenya’s coastal communities depend heavily on marine resources for livelihoods and nutrition, yet population growth, narrow income diversification, and open-access fisheries have led to chronic overfishing and near-depletion of fish stocks in nearshore and territorial waters. Kwale, Kilifi, and Tana River counties rank among Kenya’s 14 counties with the highest rates of overall poverty, with poverty headcount rates of 47.4, 46.4, and 62.2 per cent respectively.
Aquaculture offers a pathway to produce fish where wild stocks can no longer sustain demand. But Kenya’s marine aquaculture sector has been held back by a critical bottleneck: the shortage of fingerlings. As David Mirera, a mariculture scientist at KMFRI, told Dialogue Earth, the short supply of fingerlings drives some fish farmers to capture wild juvenile fish in coastal waters to stock their ponds — a practice that undermines the very conservation goals aquaculture is meant to support. NAMARET’s hatchery is designed to break this cycle by providing a reliable, large-scale supply of farmed seed.
The facility will also offer fish processing and cold storage services, which are often unaffordable for small-scale fish farmers. For groups like the Baraka Women’s Conservation Group in the Kwale village of Makongeni, which already practises mariculture in community ponds, NAMARET represents a step change: reliable access to fingerlings without needing to source them from the wild, and access to processing infrastructure that could improve the value and shelf life of their output.
Seaweed: A Proven Model Already Generating Income
Orina pointed to seaweed farming in Kwale as evidence that coastal aquaculture can work commercially. Seaweed cultivation has emerged as a reliable source of income for local farmers in the county, with financial institutions increasingly tracking farmers’ output and offering financing to help scale production. The product is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and is used in the manufacture of cosmetics, lotions, soaps, and shower gels, giving it value-added potential beyond raw commodity sales.
Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho highlighted the broader impact during a February 2026 tour of the coast with President William Ruto. Joho noted that NAMARET has already begun distributing fingerlings to farmers, with tangible results. “A group got the seeds of tafi [rabbitfish] and prawn in Kilifi from NAMARET and now earns up to Sh2 million every three months,” he said, signalling that even the partially operational facility is demonstrating commercial viability.
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Youth Unemployment and the Blue Economy Opportunity
Orina used the public engagement platform to make a pointed argument about fish farming as a solution to one of Kenya’s most persistent economic challenges: youth unemployment. Over 50 per cent of Kenya’s 2.97 million unemployed are aged between 18 and 29, a demographic reality that has made job creation the central preoccupation of economic policymakers.
“Opportunities, especially in fish farming, remain widely accessible but underutilised by young people across the country,” Orina said. “The sector has the potential to enhance both incomes and national food security.”
The government has been positioning the blue economy as a key pathway for youth employment, with officials targeting the creation of 240,000 jobs in the fisheries sector. Government data shows that more than 200,000 young people have already been reached through ongoing programmes supported by development partners, with over 60 per cent of financing disbursed through fisheries programmes going to youth and women. Alongside NAMARET, training centres are being established in Kisumu and Kwale counties to equip young people with skills in aquaculture and marine farming.
Kenyan youth are increasingly looking to the blue economy for business and employment opportunities, driven by private sector players working with the government and development partners to bridge the gap between traditional financial institutions and the needs of small-scale fishers. Through the Women and Youth Economic Empowerment in the Fisheries Programme, MicroSave Consulting is collaborating with partners to address barriers that have historically excluded many young fishers from accessing formal credit and insurance. However, stakeholders acknowledge that more targeted financial instruments are needed, including affordable credit tailored to small-scale operators and risk-sharing mechanisms to encourage private sector lending.
The WorldFish organisation’s Asia-Africa BlueTech Superhighway project is also investigating how aquaculture — particularly Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture — can create sustainable livelihoods for women and youth in Kenya’s coastal counties of Kilifi, Kwale, and Mombasa. The research recognises that despite living near abundant marine resources, women and young people often face exclusion from stable employment in the sector.
Marine Biology in Schools: Building a Pipeline
KMFRI chief Orina also welcomed a curriculum reform that could have long-term implications for the blue economy workforce. Marine Biology has been introduced under Kenya’s Competency-Based Education (CBE) system at the secondary school level — a significant departure from the past, when the subject was confined to universities.
“Unlike before, when Marine Biology was primarily introduced at university level, students are now engaging with it in secondary school,” Orina said, describing the shift as giving learners a foundation to build careers in the sector. For a country with 640 kilometres of Indian Ocean coastline and extensive lake systems, the move aligns education more closely with the economic opportunities the government is actively trying to create.
A Sh32 Billion Vision and a National Strategy
NAMARET sits within a much larger blue economy investment programme. CS Joho disclosed in February 2026 that President Ruto has approved negotiations for a further Sh32 billion in donor funding for the blue economy, signalling the government’s intent to scale coastal infrastructure significantly. Alongside NAMARET, the government has already completed the Sh2.7 billion Shimoni fish port, Kenya’s first dedicated fish port, which was funded by Kenya Ports Authority and is now seeking a private operator.
On 26 February 2026, Kenya launched its National Blue Economy Strategy 2025–2030, projecting that the sector’s earnings could reach approximately Sh350 billion by 2030. The strategy recognises that Kenya’s marine and aquatic resources — the Indian Ocean coastline, Lake Victoria, Lake Turkana, and numerous inland water bodies — represent significant untapped potential for economic growth, food security, and climate resilience. County governments across the coast region have also begun developing legislation to support the blue economy, with each county set to receive deep-sea fishing boats from the national government.
The strategy will receive a global platform in June 2026, when Kenya hosts the 11th Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, bringing together world leaders, policymakers, investors, and conservation actors. The conference places Kenya at the centre of international discussions on ocean sustainability and provides an opportunity to showcase investments like NAMARET as examples of how developing countries can build productive marine economies while maintaining ecosystem integrity.
Challenges and the Road Ahead
The ambition is clear, but execution has not always been smooth. As Dialogue Earth reported, NAMARET’s construction has faced delays, including difficulties finding contractors with the specialised expertise required for a marine hatchery facility. The original building contractor failed to meet anticipated standards, and the government had to search for a replacement. COVID-19 further slowed progress. The World Bank has been providing technical support from Australia to fast-track the project, and KMFRI’s Mirera noted that “being a specialised field and having no local expertise, it takes a long time to get the right contractors for the job.”
There are also broader structural challenges. Access to financing remains one of the biggest obstacles for small-scale fishers and processors seeking to expand operations. Many young entrepreneurs struggle to secure the capital needed to scale aquaculture ventures, and financial institutions are still learning how to assess risk in a sector that does not conform to conventional lending models. Without tailored financial products — affordable credit, blended finance, and risk-sharing mechanisms — the sector risks remaining undercapitalised despite its potential.
Yet the direction of travel is unmistakable. With NAMARET nearing completion, the National Blue Economy Strategy formally launched, Sh32 billion in new funding under negotiation, and a global ocean conference arriving on Kenya’s doorstep in June, the blue economy is receiving more sustained policy attention and capital allocation than at any point in the country’s history. For the fishing communities of Kwale County and the wider coast, the question is whether that attention translates into the jobs, incomes, and food security that have been promised. NAMARET, if it delivers on its ambition, could be the facility that proves it can.
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