Disaster Risk Interventions for Enhancing Resilience among Pastoral Communities of Mandera County, Kenya

Abstract

Climate change is among the greatest challenges being experienced globally today and affects all aspects of sustainable development. Consequently, climate-related hazards have been recorded as the major triggers for major disasters worldwide. However, extensive research in Disaster Risk Reduction Interventions is greatly lacking. This study sought to investigate the disaster risk reduction interventions for enhancing resilience among pastoral communities of Mandera County. The specific research objectives were; determine trends variation in climatic elements of temperature and precipitation from 1989 to 2019 in Mandera County, investigate the impacts of drought hazards on livelihoods of pastoral communities residing in Mandera County from 1989 to 2019, identify the opportunities and constraints for Disaster Risk Reduction and evaluate institutional capacity in improving pastoral societies’ resilience to Drought Disaster and their capacity for action. Three sampling techniques; stratified sampling, simple random and purposive sampling were used to collect primary and secondary data from both the respondents and key informants with a sample size of 157. The findings were analysed with Statistical Package of Social Sciences and Excel. The results show, at least 55.7% of the sampled respondents had basic primary level education. The months of December, January and February were the most water scarce months of the year, with 54.2% of the respondents stating that they depend on dam water as their main source of water in their households as opposed to 3.8% who depend on piped water. The findings of this study also found out that the most food insecure months were February, March and July of each year which were also the months impacted mostly by drought with a minimum of 23.8oC and maximum of 38.2 oC for the years between 1989 to 2019. The analysed results were presented inform of tables, pie-chart and graphs. The hypothesis was tested by Chi-Square (χ2). The null hypothesis of drought shocks had no association χ2 =4.468, DF=6, P=0.624, with effective and affordable practices of drought mitigation and preparedness in Mandera County, and failed to be rejected This study is recommends need to strengthen their weather forecast and improve on early warning to enable local communities’ to better plan their activities and prepare for any probable occurrence of future climate related disasters in Mandera County.