Popular fish restaurant risks closure as drought hits

A hotel in Narumoru, popular for its fish dishes, risks closure after running out of stocks as drought continues to bite.

Trout Tree restaurant could be out of business after rivers that hosted its hatcheries ran dry. 

The restaurant, located along the Nanyuki-Narumoru Highway, is frequented by tourists on the Mt Kenya Tourism Circuit.

It is a favourite stopover joint to fish lovers due to its trout cuisine. 

The restaurant has its fish hatcheries on two rivers -Burguret and Narumoru, which have since dried up, killing thousands of trout fish.

According to the facility's manager, John Wainaina, more than 30,000 fish died in two hatcheries in Narumoru River.

The massive losses are said to have been occasioned by a breakdown of a water management programme in the area that was designed to ensure that the rivers did not dry up.

However, water users affiliated to six community-based groups and small-scale farmers upstream failed to adhere to the programme initiated by Water Resource Authority (WRA) to allow flow of water to lower parts of Nyeri and Laikipia.

Employees at the hatcheries scrambled to salvage the last of dying trout fish from at least 30 ponds.

“We had to remove all of them to salvage the mature ones and smoke others to make fish by-products," said Wainaina.

WRA manager Gibson Mwangi promised to take action against the groups that were defying the water management programme.  

“Severe action will be taken against groups that have defied the order,” said Mwangi.