Migingo Island, a rocky outcrop on the northeastern edge of Lake Victoria in Kenya, has earned global attention for packing an entire community into an area no larger than a football pitch.
According to express.co.uk, this bustling fishing hub is dotted with tightly clustered tin-roofed homes, creating one of the most densely populated living spaces in the world.
But the waters around it are contested by Kenya and Uganda, and have been the subject of a long-running, low-level territorial dispute, largely as a result of arbitrarily drawn colonial borders. However, despite rows between their respective governments, people from both countries travel to the island to catch Nile Perch, also known as mbuta, a valuable freshwater fish that’s abundant in the waters around it.
In January last year, Dubai-based filmmaker Joe Hattab shared a video on YouTube about his journey to the island by boat to make a short film about life there. The content creator said he saw Kenyans and Ugandans “hanging out together”.
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A young fisherman told AFP in an article published in 2018 that “sometimes there are tensions”, though generally people go about their business.
Migingo had for a long time been uninhabited, after 1990 it started to become known as a fertile fishing spot, attracting fishermen from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
The island measures about 2,000 square meters, making it around half the size of a professional 11-a-side football pitch.
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Migingo was described by France 24 as the “most densely populated island in the world”, and while it doesn’t officially have that title, it’s widely thought to be among the most crowded globally.
A striking mosaic of homes built with sheet of corrugated iron covers the island. A 2009 census put the population of the island at 131 people, which would put its population density at around 65,500 people per square kilometer, among the highest in the world.
Some reports have suggested it could be as much as 500 people, though the high number of people who stay on a short-term basis may make it difficult to assess.
The islet is said to be home to a number of bars, a hair salon, as well as small clinic where a nurse treats minor issues.
However for more serious medical problems, inhabitants have to travel to the Kenyan mainland. The island lacks key infrastructure like running water and sewage systems, making life on the island extremely difficult, despite the important role it plays in the local economy.
