double tragedy

Kenya: Drought turns spotlight on human-wildlife conflict in the north

By Kang-Chun Cheng

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Posted on September 16, 2022 10:50

© Taking a break at Gue watering hole. For such pastoralists, animals are their ‘moving banks’ and also signal social standing. (photo by Kang-Chun Cheng) — Taking a break at Gue watering hole. For such pastoralists, animals are their ‘moving banks’ and also signal social standing. (photo by Kang-Chun Cheng)

To the layperson’s eye, much of northern Kenya appears barren, proliferated by desiccated shrubs and the occasional struggling goat. However, it’s home to many ethnic groups, such as the Rendille, who tend to live in big clans and herd their livestock together, and the Turkana, who traditionally operate in small family units and are semi-nomadic peoples. Pastoralism is a common thread that unifies the residents in this region, but climate change is exacerbating an already extreme environment.

The Horn of Africa is experiencing the fourth below-average rainy season since 2020, of which the Kenyan government declared a national emergency in September 2021. An estimated 4.1 million people in Kenya require humanitarian water assistance as nearly 500 boreholes have stopped functioning. 1.5 million cattle have also died from the drought.

Linda Ogallo, a climate change adaptation expert at the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) based in Nairobi, says drought is not being experienced in a vacuum. “The region has faced compounded disasters in the last few years,” she says, which has heightened instances of food insecurity and disease outbreaks.

Climate change exacerbates extremes, says Robert Patalano, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology. In addition to coping with periods of more intense dry seasons, punctuated by se

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