ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Pastoralism
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/past.2025.14334
This article is part of the Special IssueLivestock Marketing by PastoralistsView all articles
An In-Depth Assessment of Pastoral Policy Landscape in Kenya
- Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya
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The policy landscape explores the policy formulation processes, the policies, and the stakeholders involved in improving governance, implementation of policies, and government commitment in a democratic country. It emphasizes the human development approach that is within the Pastoralism Framework of the African Union (AU), recognizing the link between economic growth and human development through deliberate policies at various levels. The integrated strategies in Kenya's pastoral policy landscape aim to evaluate progress against the objectives of national development projects and how those objectives are integrated into County-Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs) and outcomes based on Metland's Ambiguity-Conflict Model. This landscape seeks to frame and advance the changing dynamic of how the current policies and strategies align with the realities of the pastoral sector with an emphasis on livestock production and marketing but recognizing pastoralists are involved in other economic activities such as opportunistic irrigation, fishing, beekeeping, quarry mining, firewood, liquor production, and casual labor. Doing so is to support the alleviation of persistent multidimensional poverty in those regions and improve communication (at the intra-and inter-governmental levels), coordination, and flow of county-level heterogeneous information in support of a centralized policymaking process. It also identifies ways to prioritize pastoral livestock marketing, integrate pastoral issues in decision-making, empower women, and adopt climate adaptation for holistic pastoral transformation.The AU pastoral policy framework aims to provide a comprehensive strategy for sustainable pastoralism across the continent, emphasizing resilience, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic development (African Union, 2010). In contrast, Kenya's pastoral policies have often been criticized for their fragmented approach and insufficient alignment with broader continental objectives. By conducting a comparative assessment, policymakers can pinpoint areas where Kenya's policies fall short of the AU's guidelines, thereby facilitating targeted improvements. This alignment enhances the coherence and effectiveness of national policies and ensures that Kenya benefits from shared regional strategies and best practices, which contribute to their improvement. Ultimately, such an assessment is vital for fostering a robust pastoral economy resilient to climate change, market volatility, and socio-political dynamics.
Keywords: Pastoralism, pastoralist, Policy, Rangelands, Kenya
Received: 13 Jan 2025; Accepted: 03 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ndiritu, Waimiri, Muthanga and Baskaran-Makanju. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: S. Wagura Ndiritu, Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya
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