Wajir County
Desert pastoralism faces recurring drought—2.1 million faced crisis before 2025 long rains brought relief. By 2026: humanitarian systems prevent collapse or cycle repeats.
Wajir exists because the wells exist—specifically, the water sources that enable pastoral survival in Kenya's northeastern desert. The Somali pastoralists who dominate this county developed livestock systems adapted to extreme aridity: camels that can go weeks without water, goats that browse desert scrub, constant movement following sparse vegetation across vast distances.
But 2025 brought crisis. Wajir ranked among counties "hardest hit by drought," with projections of emergency-level food insecurity (IPC Phase 4) between April and June. Over 2.1 million people across northern Kenya faced "crisis-level hunger" as failed short rains pushed the region deeper into drought. Livestock weakened, disease spread, grazing conflicts intensified. Women and children faced elevated malnutrition and displacement.
The humanitarian response activated: NDMA's multi-sectoral Drought Response Plan targets 2.8 million people requiring $142 million. MPs demanded national disaster declaration to unlock donor intervention. Yet even as emergency dominated headlines, the March-May 2025 long rains brought improvement—by June, NDMA reported transition to "normal drought phase" across ASAL counties.
The county exhibits classic pastoral vulnerability: boom-bust cycles following rainfall, with each drought eroding herd assets that take years to rebuild. By 2026, Wajir tests whether improved early warning systems and humanitarian response can break the cycle—or whether pastoralists remain caught between insufficient development investment and recurring crisis.