Effect Of Drought Management Institutional Framework On Sustainable Economic Livelihood Of Pastoral Communities In Garissa County, Kenya

Drought is the major dominant and frequent hazard affecting pastoralism, which is not only a manner of life for millions of people in the Horn of Africa but also a source of livelihood and a production system practised in the vast arid lands of the African continent. Post-drought valuations of government response to drought have confirmed that the reactive or crisis management method has led to ineffective, poorly coordinated, and untimely responses, and this triggered the current study to focus on analysing the effect of drought management institutional framework on the sustainable economic livelihood of pastoral Communities in Garissa County, Kenya. The study sought to assess the effect of the drought management institutional framework on the sustainable economic livelihood of pastoral Communities in Garissa County, Kenya. A descriptive design which employed Multi-stage cluster sampling was done to select a representative sample. Data was collected from the study participants using questionnaires and interviews. The target population was 623,060, consisting of 98,590 households, (KNBS, 2009). Fisher’s formula was adopted to arrive at the sample size of 405. Mixed methods approaches were used to analyse the data using SPSS version 21. The study found that there is neither a clear framework for communication of expectations in early signs nor communicating early warning signs of drought to the pastoral communities and other authorities are effective. The county government has inadequate funding for curbing water and pasture scarcity challenges; drought emergency funding is ineffective as well. There is no effective mechanism to respond to and monitor disease outbreaks. The county government should establish a clear framework for communication of expectations in early signs. The county government should adequately fund drought emergency and recovery programmes. There is a need to have an effective mechanism to respond to and monitor disease outbreaks. Policies for strengthening coordination mechanisms should be well established.