AUTHOR=Oba Gufu , Wario Hussein Tadicha , Roba Hassan Guyo 
  
TITLE=Insights into pastoralist households’ coping and adaptive strategies during northern Kenya’s 2019–2022 drought
  
JOURNAL=Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice
  
VOLUME=Volume 16 - 2026
  
YEAR=2026
  
URL=https://www.frontierspartnerships.org/journals/pastoralism-research-policy-and-practice/articles/10.3389/past.2026.16489
  
DOI=10.3389/past.2026.16489
  
ISSN=2041-7136
  
ABSTRACT=This study is part of a long-term monitoring effort (34 years) of pastoralist households in northern Kenya affected by a series of droughts over the past four decades. The present paper investigates how these same households coped with and adapted to the prolonged drought from 2019 to 2022. The study posed three main questions: To what extent does environmental vulnerability influence species-specific coping and adaptive strategies? How did household labour arrangements and herd mobility decisions influence drought management? To what extent do land-use changes, fodder management practices, and livestock market price fluctuations influence herders’ coping and adaptive strategies? Using mixed methods—household surveys involving 234 households, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews—the research findings highlight interlinked dimensions of drought coping and adaptation. The findings reveal stark species-specific vulnerabilities: cattle and sheep suffered extreme mortality, whereas goats and camels showed resilience due to their tolerance of water scarcity and diverse forage. Labour dynamics shifted as traditional family labour declined, replaced by monetized hired herders and cooperative arrangements, though high turnover and costs undermined effectiveness. Land-use changes, including semi-private range enclosures and crop cultivation, failed to mitigate the impacts, but women-led fodder-banking groups emerged as innovative resilience strategies. Market dynamics compounded stress, with distress livestock sales at declining prices deepening household indebtedness and eroding livelihood security. Community narratives highlighted ecological collapse marked by widespread pasture loss, water scarcity, and tree mortality, underscoring the need for transformative adaptation. Herd diversification, particularly the growing role of camels, and gendered initiatives such as fodder banking were central to resilience. Overall, the study demonstrates that pastoralists are not passive victims but active agents of adaptation, innovating through labor reorganization, collective action, and multi-species herd strategies to sustain livelihoods under intensifying drought conditions.