There is a common agreement that establishment of co-management could be of benefit to fisher community and other stakeholders across the African Great Lakes. This studo examined the efficacy of community-level fishery co-management organizations called Beach Management Units (BMUs) along the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria in the wake of the impacts of climate change. Data were collected from 5 BMUs along the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria. A total of 99 respondents and 20 key informant interviews were done in all the 5 riparian counties of Lake Victoria. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed using excel and R-4.4.0.tar.gz. Data was collected through site observations, and questionnaire led interviews involving the key informants and Beach Management Units’ members. The study reveals that main causes of climate change are defforestation(82%), Industralization (43%), rainfall (23%) and GHGs (21%) while the main consequences are food insecurity (64%), Drought (60%), rainfall (57%), fish stock change (56%) and poor human health at (52%) .Survey result indicate that 93.9% (Figure 5) of the respondents are aware of climate change. Despite majority of the respondents being aware of climate change, only 34.4% agreed on evidenced climate change impacts adaptation strategies within the co management framework. The study reveals that it’s not clear weather climate change issues get integrated in the co-management framework with committee members (38%), BMU leaders (50%) says not integrated while 58% of the fish traders doesn’t know. BMU committee members, BMU leaders, fish traders, fisherman and other categories were rated 50%, 50%, 35%, 28%, 42% respectively to somewhat believe that there is community education on climate change and co-management issues. The low rating of such measurable attributes advocates lack of effectiveness of co-management in Lake Victoria, Kenya. This was attributed mainly to lack of continuous awareness creation amid the changing lake environmental conditions and dynamics in the specific species fishery. There is need to sustain the achievements so far attained in promoting co-management and ecosystem sustainability, as enforcement of laws and regulations can be a challenging undertaking without government support. Governments should ensure financial and material provision in expanding capacity of co-management units in promoting community livelihoods and fishery sustainability.
Key words: Lake Victoria, co-management, climate change, impacts