Severe drought imperils pastoral lives in Garissa

Garissa County, located in Kenya’s northeastern arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), is among the regions most vulnerable to the multiple impacts of climate variability and change.

Characterised by inherently scarce and erratic rainfall, the county faces exacerbated challenges due to prolonged droughts and environmental degradation.

These conditions threaten the food security, water availability, and socio-economic well-being of predominantly pastoralist communities whose livelihoods are intricately tied to natural resource ecosystems.

Climate change compounds these local environmental challenges by altering weather patterns and increasing temperature.

Regional climate models by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Climate Prediction and Applications Centre and data from the Kenya Meteorological Department reveal that northeastern Kenya has experienced rising average temperatures and more erratic precipitation patterns over recent decades.

Economic hardship

Such climatic shifts strain water availability and agricultural productivity, engendering chronic food insecurity and economic hardship in Garissa.

Pastoralism remains one of the quintessential livelihoods in Garissa County, where the ecological and economic systems are intricately linked to the productivity and sustainability of rangelands.

However, the recurrent episodes of drought, erratic rainfall, and land degradation increasingly undermine the resilience of pastoral communities, leading to vulnerability in food security, nutritional outcomes, and overall wellbeing.

One of the primary nutritional challenges in ASALs is chronic food insecurity, which arises from the inherently low agricultural productivity dictated by harsh environmental conditions.

The scarcity and unreliability of water resources limit crop cultivation and livestock production, reducing the availability of both plant and animal-source foods essential for balanced diets. Predominantly rain-fed agriculture, which is highly vulnerable to drought and erratic precipitation patterns, exacerbates this vulnerability.

The drought episodes in Garissa are not isolated meteorological phenomena but intricate socio-ecological hazards that transcend simplistic climatic causation.

Waterborne diseases

Acute water shortages compromise sanitation and hygiene, lead to school closures, and strain healthcare facilities with surging incidences of malnutrition and waterborne diseases.

The interdependence of environmental and social factors synthesizes a complex vulnerability matrix where pastoralist livelihoods face existential threats. Their traditional mobility, livestock management, and resource uses are increasingly subjected to stress, driving cycles of poverty, food insecurity, and social instability.

Climate change acts as a force multiplier in Garissa’s drought scenario by altering weather patterns and exacerbating temperature extremes. Increased variability in precipitation disrupts the reliability of seasonal rains crucial for pastoral and agricultural activities.

The reduced water availability compromises both human consumption and livestock sustenance, leading to reduced productivity and increased vulnerability.

The erosion of vegetative cover diminishes forage availability, further stressing pastoralist systems and accelerating rangeland degradation. This feedback loop of environmental decline and socio-economic hardship illustrates the necessity for integrated climate adaptation strategies that address both ecological and human dimensions.

The county’s climatic regime has historically been dominated by arid and semi-arid conditions, with a unimodal or bimodal rainfall pattern marked by variability in onset, duration, and total precipitation.

Rainfall scarcity and unpredictability, compounded by rising average temperatures and increasing evapotranspiration rates, have escalated drought frequency and intensity as documented by regional climate models from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) and data from the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD). The consequent environmental degradation manifests as loss of vegetation cover, soil erosion, and advancing desertification, all of which undermine the land’s productivity and ecological resilience.

Policy level

Strategic interventions to address Garissa County’s drought predicament require a multifaceted and integrated approach.

At the policy level, enhancing drought resilience necessitates investment in sustainable water management systems, including rainwater harvesting, boreholes, and the promotion of drought-resistant crops and livestock breeds.

Institutional frameworks should facilitate early warning systems and disaster preparedness, incorporating local knowledge and community participation to enhance responsiveness and adaptability.

Additionally, regional cooperation is vital, given the transboundary nature of pastoralist movements and resource competition.

One notable initiative addressing this concern is the Weather and Climate Information Services (WISER) Kenya project, funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The aim of the project is to support the resilience of communities and institutions in Kenya to weather and climate-related hazards by enhancing relevant and accessible early warning-forecasted weather and climate information services.

It is expected that access to these services will enable preparedness, adaptation, and mitigation measures to be taken at the community and household levels.

To mitigate extreme climate challenges in the County, WISER Kenya project has improved the accessibility and usability of reliable weather and climate information services to enhance community resilience to climate shocks.

Vulnerable groups

Operating mainly in Garissa and neighbouring Tana River Counties, WISER targets the production and dissemination of timely, accurate, and user-relevant meteorological data. The project embodies an integrative approach that synergises scientific expertise, institutional coordination, and bottom-up community engagement, thereby facilitating adaptive capacity among vulnerable groups.

The training of pastoralists in Garissa, is strategically designed to address the dual challenges of rangeland deterioration and malnutrition.

By integrating rangeland management with nutritional surveillance, the WISER project adopts a holistic approach that recognizes the interdependence of ecosystem health and human nutrition. Pastoralists are trained to interpret weather forecasts, understand climatic trends, and apply this knowledge toward sustainable grazing practices that maintain vegetation cover and mitigate overgrazing. Concurrently, nutritional surveillance enables pastoral communities to monitor the health status of their herds and human populations, facilitating early interventions that can prevent malnutrition and promote resilience in target communities.

This intervention aligns with several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). By stabilizing food production through climate-smart advisories, WISER mitigates hunger and builds agricultural resilience. Its contributions to climate risk management enhance national adaptation objectives, while ecosystem conservation efforts via rangeland management promote biodiversity and land restoration.

A distinctive innovation of WISER Kenya lies in its deliberate engagement of religious leaders—imams, pastors, priests, and other faith figures—who wield considerable moral authority and trust in Garissa’s predominantly Muslim and Christian population. Recognizing the critical role of faith institutions in community cohesion and decision-making, the project leverages these leaders as conduits for climate information dissemination. This culturally consonant strategy overcomes barriers such as low literacy levels, skepticism towards governmental sources, and limited technological access by embedding climate advisories within faith-based communication platforms.

The dissemination mechanics embrace oral communication immediately following religious gatherings, community meetings, and other social congregations, thereby democratizing access to critical information. Complementing this are mobile phone-based SMS alerts that extend reach and cater to diverse user preferences and capacities. Together, these multi-channel pathways amplify the visibility, credibility, and uptake of climate advisories. Importantly, WISER’s integration within the global United Nations Secretary-General’s Early Warning for All (EW4ALL) initiative underlines the universal imperative of accessible early warning systems to save lives and foster sustainable development.

WISER’s effectiveness is rooted in a robust institutional framework facilitating data accuracy, timeliness, and actionability. ICPAC, KMD, the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), and the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) collaborate closely to ensure that climate forecasts are scientifically sound and operationalized for early warning. Additionally, phase two of the project emphasizes training pastoralists in climate-informed rangeland management and nutrition interventions, deepening the application of knowledge at the grassroots level.

Continuous capacity-building is integral for religious leaders to interpret complex scientific data accurately and relay it effectively without distortion. Technological infrastructure improvements, particularly mobile network coverage and community ICT literacy, remain requisite for maximizing the project’s outreach.

The WISER Kenya project’s model of integrating religious leadership embodies a culturally sensitive, socially embedded approach to climate adaptation. It enhances the adaptive capacity of pastoralist communities by facilitating timely decisions related to livestock herding, migration, water usage, and nutrition. Faith leaders’ ability to intertwine climatic advisories with ethical and spiritual teachings fosters a holistic environmental stewardship ethos, grounding scientific information within community values and motivating collective responsibility toward resource management.

Despite its successes, the project faces ongoing challenges: ensuring scientific literacy among communities, overcoming infrastructural gaps, and addressing technological disparities among community members. Nevertheless, WISER Kenya’s innovative, socially embedded framework offers valuable lessons for replication in similar ASAL contexts where such interventions adherence is vital to social structure. It demonstrates that embedding climate resilience into indigenous institutions enhances legitimacy, acceptance, and sustained behavioral change.