A woman cuts and cleans Nile perches on the island. It was in the early 2000s when the island was barely inhabited that it began drawing the attention of Ugandan authorities. They sent officials to Migingo to tax fishermen and offer protection against pirates. Kenyan fishermen began complaining that they were being shaken down by the Ugandans in their own waters and chased from the island. They called on Kenya’s government, which deployed security forces to Migingo in a move that nearly brought the two nations to blows in 2009.