Adapting to Drought: An Ethnographic Study of the 2020-2023 prolonged drought in Samburu County, Kenya

Mwangi, Elizabeth

Adapting to Drought: An Ethnographic Study of the 2020-2023 prolonged drought in Samburu County, Kenya

Thesis / Dissertation

2026

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Social Anthropology

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

Between 2020 and 2023, Kenya experienced its worst prolonged drought in the last four decades. Many communities, particularly those located within Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) of Northern Kenya bore the heaviest brunt of this climate change induced disaster. This study took place in Ngari Village, Samburu County one of the most impacted ASAL regions by the drought. The aim was to explore the extent to which socioeconomic and political factors exacerbate the impacts of drought on agro-pastoral communities that occupy the region. Through an ethnographic study conducted over five weeks, I sought to explore the lived experiences of the Samburu community living in Ngari Village during the drought. Given that post-colonial narratives of Samburu County continue to portray it as one of extreme economic hardships, ongoing tribal conflicts, and a recipient to many development aid projects, this research revealed that such narratives and imaginations continue to play a significant role in the drought management systems employed. In this research, I argue that drought is more than a hydro-meteorological event – it encompasses the biophysical and social realities of a community which in turn produces lived experiences. I explore several of the economised and technical solutions that have been employed and argue for the need of these interventions to move beyond viewing drought as a physical phenomenon, and to also center the complex and vast networks of relations within communities. Drawing on interdisciplinary environmental humanities scholarship, I foreground the ecological flows within Samburu landscape and the interplay of these with local histories and cultures, calling for a more nuanced approach to drought interventions that can address the lived experiences of both human and more-than-human worlds.

Keywords

drought

Kenya

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Masters

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