PhD thesis Title Page Final _Richard Juma - Victoria University ...

esults in increased deterioration of the remaining fragile lands (Republic
of Kenya 1992) 2.
In the light of the above discussion, it is clear that the policies during
colonial and post independence periods weakened internal management
and leadership capabilities of pastoral societies. Development initiatives
undermine the traditional management system, based on communal
rangelands, and push pastoralists into different forms of privatization.
These private holdings reduce the size of their rangelands and makes
access to distant dry-season and drought reserve pastures difficult. The
growing population pressure in pastoral areas contributes to degradation
of grazing lands and consequent overgrazing. In addition, Sub-Saharan
African governments seek to settle the pastoralists so that they could be
controlled and taxed. Most livestock development projects stress the need
to supply meat to urban centres and thus concentrate on raising cattle
rather than goats and camels. While this strategy may have been beneficial
to urban consumers, shifting livestock preference from drought-resilient
animals to species that are more prone to suffer during droughts put
pastoral people increasingly at risk.
Therefore, the colonial and post independence policies in Sub-Saharan
Africa resulted in the disruption of the ecological balance and pastoral
flexibility, and accelerated deterioration of natural resources. It then led to
an increasing number of conflicts over available resources, and affected
the resilience of pastoral systems, thus rendering pastoralists more
vulnerable to environmental hazards such as drought.
2 Vulnerability has been extensively discussed in literature (Blaikie, Cannon, Davis, and
Wisner 1994; Chambers 1989; DFID 2004; Ellis 2003). Adger and Kelly (1999) refer to
vulnerability as the potential to be adversely affected by an event or change. My study
refers to the social vulnerability i.e the capacity of individuals or communities to respond
to physical impacts.
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