*Article* **Pastoral Resilience among the Maasai Pastoralists of Laikipia County, Kenya**

**Edwin Ambani Ameso 1,\*, Salome Atieno Bukachi 1, Charles Owuor Olungah 1, Tobias Haller 2, Simiyu Wandibba <sup>1</sup> and Steve Nangendo <sup>1</sup>**


Received: 11 May 2018; Accepted: 11 June 2018; Published: 19 June 2018

**Abstract:** This paper addresses pastoral resilience by drawing out the coping strategies and mechanisms utilized by the Maasai Pastoralists through a food system approach, based on the study findings of an anthropological study of pastoralism as a food system in Laikipia County, Rift Valley, Kenya. The co-existence and interactions of pastoralism as a food system with other types of food systems in Laikipia, such as large-scale horticulture, justified the selection of the study site. This paper is guided by the specific objectives aimed at establishing actors and their roles, and describing the institutional settings and changes that sustain the continued practice of pastoralism. Using a new institutionalism approach, the paper focuses not only on the actors and their roles but also on how internal and external forces regulate access and use of common pool resources (CPRs) resulting in food sustainability within the food system amidst climatic challenges and cyclic humanitarian crises. We argue that this has an impact on the food system that continually defines and redefines the actors' roles and institutional settings and changes (formal and informal rules, regulations, values and norms) that in turn affirm the value of pastoral economies and benefits accrued to a wide range of actors beyond the community and leading to pastoral resilience. Data collected through in-depth interviews amongst pastoral households identified actors and their roles in pastoralism in the household with a total of 50 households being conveniently sampled. Key informant interviews with key stakeholders in the food system described the institutional settings and changes and also identified actors and their roles in pastoralism. Three focus group discussions based on age and gender, established the actors and their roles and described institutional settings and changes to supplement data collected from interviews and unstructured observations aimed at giving a better description of the actors and their roles and also point to observable institutional settings and changes within and outside the community group ranches. The findings reveal that actors in the household, state, non-state, and service providers have developed varied coping strategies and mechanisms that sustain pastoralism. The study also identified institutional settings and changes that promote pastoral resilience, notably, private land ownership patterns, co-management of livestock markets, commercialization of herding, decentralization of livestock services, holistic management of pasture and the water-shed management plans. As a result, increased scholarship and advocacy in regards to the concept of co-management of livestock markets, are recommended as a means of understanding the pastoral resilience that the food system exhibits.

**Keywords:** pastoral resilience; co-management concept; decentralization; holistic management; water-shed management plan; commercialization of herding; Common Pool Resources (CPRs)

#### **1. Introduction**

Globally, pastoralism, as a food system, is practiced in the rangelands that cover 25–45 per cent of the earth's land surface area with two-thirds of these rangelands found in Asia (36%) and Africa (30%) and being used in common. These rangelands, whether warm or cold, have variable and often harsh climates and are sparsely populated with limited common pool resources (CPRs) especially water and pasturelands (Reid et al. 2014 [1]; Dong et al. 2011 [2]). Pastoral cultures relies heavily on livestock rearing which play a very important role in terms of livelihoods, social capital, and as an insurance against disaster (World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism, WISP, 2007:2 [3]). Previously, pastoralism was understood as a stepping-stone in socio-economic evolution between hunter-gatherers and a sedentary agricultural lifestyle. However, it has proved a highly innovative production system and a livelihood that has evolved to adapt to climatic and environmental conditions that limit agricultural expansion and other impacts and stressors (Norwegian Refugee Council, NRC, 2014:10 [4]). Currently, pastoralism continues to survive and remain productive within the rangelands in the midst of environmental stresses such as droughts and floods through various actor roles, institutions and knowledge systems that showcase pastoral resilience (Hesse, 2009 [5]). Mobility among the pastoralists allows for extensive utilization of rangelands as common pool resources through the full use of culture and its attributes (Kaye-Zwiebel and King, 2014 [6]).

In Africa, pastoralism takes up 66 per cent of the continent's lands for pastoral production as it is considered to be the most efficient use of rangelands such as the Arid and Semiarid lands (ASALs) of Kenya (NRC, 2014 [4]; Idris, 2011 [7]). According to Little and McPeak (2014) [8], pastoral resilience as a concept draws special concerns and relevance to pastoralism on two issues: climate change with a particular concern for how to build resilient communities in the face of increasingly extreme weather events and humanitarian crises, especially those that can be traced to the most recent drought-and conflict-induced disasters experienced in the Horn of Africa. The WISP (2007:2) [3] acknowledges that the rangelands in the Horn of Africa support a pastoral economy that is based mainly on the production of milk, meat, blood, hides and skins as well as provision of services such as traction and transportation. In Kenya, the pastoral groups such as the Maasai pastoralists inhabit Arid and Semiarid Lands like Laikipia County which are geographically located in the north, East and South of the country and in total account for 36 per cent of the total population which is around 14 million people (GOK, 2014) [9]. The pastoralists continuously face environmental stresses as they constantly navigate the hot and dry climate of the ASALs in search of pasturelands and water sources (Pavanello, 2009) [10].

In the country, 11 counties are clustered as arid, 19 counties as semi-arid and 6 counties as having pockets of arid and semi-arid climatic conditions (ILRI, 2008) [11]. In addition, it is estimated that over 60 per cent of all livestock in Kenya is found in the ASALs and pastoralism employs 90 per cent of the local populations in the ASALs and accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) nationally (GOK, 2008) [12]. Farmer and Mbwika (2012) [13] also acknowledge that the market for meat consumption is not only structured in regards to income with a majority coming from the middle class but also pastoral meat and other livestock products find their way into markets of the two large cities in Kenya due to the high demand of the livestock and its products. Moreover, Kenyan meat supplies from pastoralists have been able to reach the Tanzanian market within the East African region and, internationally, the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) and current trends show that new markets are coming up in Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Somalia and Egypt. This study therefore was aimed at establishing the actors and their roles in pastoralism and describing the institutional settings and changes of pastoralism as a food system.

#### **2. Pastoral Resilience among the Maasai Pastoralists of Laikipia County**

In Kenya, the Arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) constitute about 84 per cent of the total land and are populated by about 20 per cent of the country's population (Idris, 2011 [7]). Bobadoye et al. (2016:120) [14] acknowledges that the ASALs are the most vulnerable regions to climate change and

other natural hazards in the country with a huge impact on livestock rearing, small-holder agriculture and tourism, which are the most dominant sources of livelihoods in these areas. According to Idris (2011:26) [7] pastoralism is practiced in 75 per cent of the ASALs which are largely populated by nomadic pastoral communities like the Maasai pastoralists of Laikipia County in the rift valley region, who rely primarily on their livestock as a source of livelihood and collectively these regions constitute the most marginalized parts of the country. Ouma et al. (2012:91) [15] add that the root causes of most of the crises facing the pastoralists who inhabit the ASALs, in the recent past, have been occasioned by climate variability and change and as well as natural and man-made related factors which have led to recurrent droughts thus leading to water shortages, conflicts over land access and use, and the disruption of the vegetation cycle in these regions that they occupy with limited common pool resources (CPRs).

Bobadoye et al. (2016) [14] allude to the depletion of CPRs within the ASALs as occasioned by prolonged dry spells, drought events and other hazards have for a long time been the lead to severe economic and food security risks as the hazards make it difficult for pastoral communities such as the Maasai pastoralists to maintain their assets and have timely responses to disasters leading to food sustainability of pastoralism as a food system. Ouma et al. (2012) [15] thus argue that, as a result of these repeated severe droughts, pastoralists continue to endure catastrophic losses of livestock, which is their capital and savings, during the drought events.

However, Idris (2011) [7] illustrates that pastoralists have the ability to successfully assess and manage risks occasioned by the vulnerability that they face in the ASALs from climatic hazards, poverty, conflicts, and diseases that make them shrewd managers of risks and leads to pastoral resilience. Limited literature exists on who the actors are and what roles they play in pastoralism as well as how formal and informal institutions (rules, regulations, norms and values) operating within pastoralism as a food system are continuously in a transition from fit to misfit and back to fit again. This paper therefore seeks to provide more insights and add to existing literature on how pastoral resilience among the Maasai pastoralists of Laikipia County is evidenced by establishing the actors and their roles as well as describing the institutional settings and changes that result in the development of coping strategies and mechanisms resulting in the continued sustenance of the food system. These coping strategies and mechanisms are relied upon by actors in the household levels, the involvement of state, non-state and service providers as actors in pastoralism within the commons and outside the commons, the development and use of organizations and associations as actors as well as the transformation of institutional settings and changes utilized in pastoralism.

#### **3. Methodology**

#### *Study Site*

This study was conducted in Laikipia County, Rift Valley, Kenya. The county is located in the central part of Kenya and it is roughly demarcated by Mount Kenya to the East and South-east, the Aberdares Range to the south and south-west, eastern rift valley to the west, Karisia Hills to the northwest, Mathews Range to the north, and Buffalo Springs National Reserve and Samburu National reserves to the Northeast (Butynski and De Jong, 2014) [16]. It is also one of the 14 counties in the rift valley region and it is bordered by Samburu county to the north, Isiolo County to the north-east, Meru county to the East, Nyeri County to the south-east, Nyandarua and Nakuru counties to the south-west and Baringo county to the west (GOK, 2013) [17] as shown in Figure 1.

Geographically, the county has five administrative units, namely, Laikipia East, Laikipia North, Laikipia Central, Laikipia West, and Nyahururu sub-counties and it is the 15th largest county in the country by land size covering an area of 9700 square kilometres (GOK, 2014) [18]. In Laikipia County 90 per cent of the land is deemed too dry and thus unfit for cultivation, less than 2 per cent of land is deemed highly viable for agriculture, 65 per cent of land is defined as wildlife habitat while 38 per cent of land is comprised of relatively intact, contiguous, and natural habitat (Butynski and De Jong, 2014) [16]. In addition, the county also consists of a rangeland plateau with a varying altitude of 1500 to 2611 metres above sea level at Ewaso Nyiro basin in the north and Marmanet forest. In the North the mean annual rainfall is estimated to be 40 cm while in the south-west it is 120 cm (GOK, 2014) [9,18].

**Figure 1.** Administrative map of Laikipia County inset the map of Kenya (Source: Munyeki, 2013 [33]).

#### **4. Methods**

#### *4.1. Study Population and Sampling Procedure*

The study population consisted of Maasai pastoralists as the Household level actors, state actors, non-state actors, service providers as actors, and organizations and associations as value chain actors in the food system. The unit of analysis was the community that was actively involved in pastoral activities and gained part of their household livelihood through the food system.

The sample consisted of 20 men and 30 women. The proportion of women was higher because they were readily available at the household level. This study collected purely qualitative data and relied on convenient sampling in selecting informants. Secondary data were collected from available literature on the Maasai pastoralists in Laikipia County, actors and their roles, and the institutional settings and changes of pastoralism.

Interviews using in-depth interview guides were conducted with the Maasai pastoralists as actors at the household level. a total of 50 Maasai pastoral households were sampled from within the community group ranches and outside the community group ranches in the vast Segera ward. In total, 25 pastoral households were sampled in Ilpolei group ranches while another 25 Maasai pastoral households were sampled in the vast Segera ward based on the willingness and availability of the pastoral households. This elicited information on the specific objectives establishing actors and their roles in the food system. Other interviews with state, non-state, service providers and organizations and associations as actors were carried out using key informant interview guides to reduce information on establishing the actors and their roles and describing the institutional settings and changes in

pastoralism. Other data collection methods used included: 3 focus group discussions based on age and gender with men, women and youth were conducted. The discussants were purposively selected from the community households that had not participated in the In-depth interviews. The inclusion of men and women focus group discussions was based on the discussants being 25 years and above and also in a recognized marriage union within the community. Participation for the youth focus group discussion comprised of young men, *morans*, aged 21–25 years of age. The discussants generated knowledge to address the actors and their roles in the pastoral food system and also alluded to informal and formal institution settings and changes that operate within the food system. Unstructured observations were also used to give insights into the observable institutional settings and changes of the food system and the level of physical interactions teasing out the coping strategies and mechanisms that sustain pastoralism as a food system resulting in food sustainability for the community, region, nation and multinationals at large.

This county's scarce and unreliable rainfall patterns, notably in Laikipia North and Laikipia East sub-counties make it difficult to practice large-scale agriculture (Ameso et al. 2017) [20]. As a result, the two sub-counties are largely pastoral zones where nomadic pastoralism is a major source of livelihood for the inhabitants as shown in Figure 2 [21].

**Figure 2.** Map of the study area: Laikipia North sub-County.
