Suburban Pastoralists: Pastoral adaptation strategies at the rural-urban interface in Nairobi, Kenya
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Abstract: This peer-reviewed study investigates how Maasai pastoralists in peri-urban Nairobi (Kitengela, Kajiado County) navigate climate change amid rapid urban expansion and shifting land tenure. Using household surveys, interviews, and focus groups, the authors identify five key pastoral adaptation strategies: mobility, diversification, storage, market exchange, and declining communal pooling. While reduced grazing space and land fragmentation constrain mobility, some pastoralists leverage peri-urban advantages?like transport, commercial fodder, urban demand, and land markets?for resilience-building. Land ownership history significantly influences adaptive capacity, with original landowners better positioned to invest in diversified rural holdings. The study concludes that pastoralists at the rural-urban interface creatively integrate urbanization into livelihood strategies, challenging the notion of static or declining pastoralism.