Conflict And Environmental Security Among The Pastoral Communities In Northern Kenya: The Case Study Of Turkana

This study explores the link between conflict and environmental security among pastoral communities in Kenya and in particular, the Turkana community. It further investigates the theoretical linkages between conflict and environmental safety. Besides, it interrogates the nature of the relationships among these variables and the effect on pastoralists’ livelihoods. It also establishes the significance of and institutional and normative frameworks on the prevention, management and the resolution of conflicts, and environmental insecurity within the context of governance deficit. It is anchored within the Thomas Homer-Dixon environmental scarcity theory. The theory is expressed in terms of reduction in the availability of natural resources and captures the issues under investigation. The customization of the theory within the pastoral setting allows for the analysis of the supply, demand and structural factors which are crucial to conflicts and environmental security among the pastoral communities in Kenya. The study employs the use of secondary data and concludes that there is a link between conflicts and environmental security, against the backdrop of governance deficit. The gap is established in forms of historical neglect, weak and limited state presence. Notably, the study problematizes these factors within the context of the pastoral setting and identifies very specific conflict causing factors and environmental insecurity generating factors. It also refutes the idea that conflicts among the pastoralists are mainly as a result of the scarcity of resources and environmental scarcity. Instead, it acknowledges a combination of various factors behind instability in pastoral areas, which drive the conflicts. Further, the study affirms the theoretical propositions to the environmental conflict discourse and scarcity-driven accounts of conflict promoted by environmental conditions. Moreover, it notes that conventional and traditional institutional and legislative frameworks for conflict prevention and management resolution which are related to natural resources play a significant role. The solution to the persistent conflicts and environmental insecurity lies mainly in the promotion of good governance.