Vulnerability of Pastoralist Livelihoods to Drought Hazards in Shanta-Abaq Division of Lagdera District, Garissa County, Kenya

Abstract

This study was undertaken in Lagdera District of Garissa County, a semi-arid area where nomadic pastoralism forms the bedrock of people’s livelihoods. The study aimed to analyze pastoralist’s household livelihood vulnerability to drought hazards over the last two decades. The study was motivated by several concerns. First, there is need to understand vulnerability of pastoralist livelihoods to drought hazards in the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya. This will help us understand the dynamics and root causes of the existing high level of poverty in the region. Second, by understanding the factors that constrain or have weakened community coping strategies to drought hazards, it is possible to design interventions in such a way that they address the constraints to the highly evolved strategies and improve community resilience to drought hazards. Thus, the broad objective of the study was, to investigate the factors that make pastoralists livelihoods vulnerable to drought hazard in North East Kenya. The study applied Vulnerability Theory to analyze pastoralist vulnerability to drought hazard. Participatory tools such as Household and Key Informant Interviews, Historical Timeline and Focus Group Discussions were used to collect primary data from five locations of Shanta-Abaq division of Lagdera district, Garissa County of North East Kenya. Two hundred respondents, 40 from each of the five locations, were randomly picked and interviewed. In the analysis of data, the study used the Statistical Package for The Social Science (SPSS), a statistical tool for data analysis. The study findings demonstrate that the underlying causes of pastoralist livelihood vulnerability to drought hazards is more of negative policies, conflict with neighbouring clans and demography than environmental influence. The policy of sedentarization promoted by the government from nineteen sixties, an increase in human population following the entry of refugees from Somalia into the district, and conflict with neighbouring communities that curtailed herd mobility, have combined to undermine the ability of pastoralist population in the study area to respond to environmental hazards such as drought thus, increasing their vulnerability. Over the last two decades, 72% of the households in the study area have dropped into poverty after losing 50% of their livestock to successive droughts. To cope with the increasing vulnerability; households have adjusted their coping mechanisms. First, they are moving away from relying on a single livestock species, cattle, to diversifying their species composition and second, engage in other sources of income for survival. In addition, communities in the study area are no longer confident that they can cope with the recurring disaster that is common in their environment. Majority of the households (75%) in the study area feel that their ability to cope with drought hazards is weak and as a result they remain vulnerable to the recurring drought hazards.