Most waterfronts supply ecotourism potential world over, and it is believed that local inhabitants at recreational-potential sites bear the first-hand opportunity for exploitation of water-based ecotourism. However, the vulnerable status of potential sites instills ecological risk perceptions in local people, and this has a bearing on participation by potential recreationists. This ultimately inhibits the benefits of ecotourism in a community. This study aimed at demonstrating the ecological risk perceptions on participation by local people in lake waterfronts recreational activities in Kisumu County. The study was conducted in 4 beaches of Lake Victoria (Asat, Usoma, Ogal and Lwangni). The study sites were grouped into rural and urban clusters. Approached by structured interviews, its outcomes were arrived at through correlation, regression and analysis of variances at 95% confidence levels. Research variables were grouped into genres such as participation in recreational activities, nature of ecological risks and psychological and cognitive influences- all which bore respective subattributes. Results suggest that dire ecological status of the waterfronts generate risks which significantly influence low participation by local people. Participation ratio was determined at only 9.48%. This correlated positively with perceptions concerning nature of environmental risks (perceived possibility of pollution (.522), perceived extents of impacts of pollution (.581) and perceived severity of disastrous consequences (.437).