Horace Owiti

Email: howiti@kmfri.go.ke

Mr. Horace Owiti Onyango is currently employed as a Research Scientist, Socioeconomics, at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), Kisumu. At KMFRI, he currently heads the Fresh Water Systems Socioeconomics research section, bringing 8 years of research experience to the Institute's inland fisheries portfolio.

Horace possesses an undergraduate degree in Actuarial Science with IT from Maseno University – Kenya (2009), a Master in International & Development Economics from the University of Namur – Belgium (2014), and is currently pursuing a PhD in Economics from Cornell University, USA in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources track. He also holds a diploma in Supervision and certificate qualifications in Project Management, Research Writing, Grant Proposal Development, Research Ethics, among others.

Horace has published two books and 13 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and is currently a member of the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization's (LVFO) regional and national working group on Socio-economics issues, contributing to transboundary fisheries policy and management.

• COVID-19 & Small-Scale Fisheries – Led research on household food insecurity and dietary diversity among Kenyan households during the COVID-19 pandemic (Current Developments in Nutrition 2021) and small-scale fishing households facing COVID-19 on Lake Victoria (Fisheries Research 2021).
• Economic & Financial Impact of Small-Scale Fisheries – Co-authored "The Lost Coin: Redefining the Economic and Financial Impact of Small-Scale Fisheries, the Case of Lake Victoria, Kenya" (SSRN 2021), providing critical evidence for policy and investment decisions.
• Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) – Published research on socio-economic prospects and problems in under-exploited offshore marine fisheries focusing on FADs in Kenya coastal fisheries (Regional Studies in Marine Science 2021).
• Citizen Science for Bio-indication – Contributed to development of a community-based index of ecosystem integrity for assessing Afrotropical riverine ecosystems (Frontiers in Water 2021).
• Poverty Alleviation & Mariculture – Co-authored research on the effects of situation analysis practices on implementation of poverty alleviation mariculture projects along the Kenyan coast (Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management 2021).
• Post-Harvest Interventions – Led research on post-harvest interventions in small-scale fisheries and their impact on food and nutritional security in Kenya (Journal of Food Security 2019).
• Market Linkages for Fish – Co-authored research on market linkages and distribution channels of cultured, captured and imported fish in Kenya (Aquaculture Studies 2019).
• Participatory Fisheries Assessment – Contributed to participatory assessment of priority fishery profiles in an overfished urban inshore seascape in Kenya (WIO Journal of Marine Science 2018).
• Mariculture Poverty Alleviation – Co-authored research on effects of monitoring and evaluation planning on implementation of poverty alleviation mariculture projects (Marine Policy 2020).
• Climate Change & Coastal Communities – Co-authored assessment of perceived socioeconomic impacts of climate change on Faza Island, Lamu County (OSSREA 2012).