An Empirical Analysis of Livelihood Strategies and Food Insecurity in Turkana County, Kenya
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Date
2017-09-04
Authors
Gathiaka, John Kamau
Muriithi, Moses Kinyanjui
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Economic Research consortium
Abstract
The pastoral communities of Turkana in northern Kenya have for ages satisfied
their economic, social and cultural needs through nomadic pastoralism. But due
to increasing frequency of drought and market shocks, the ability of age-old
strategies to shield these pastoralists from poverty and food insecurity has declined.
With only livestock and social capital as the main assets in a communal property
regime, it is not clear which of the various livelihood strategies that these pastoralists
pursue can shield households from drought and market shocks and guarantee their food
security. This study investigates the livelihood strategies as pursued by pastoralists in
Turkana County with a view to identify strategies that can effectively shield households
from shocks. Data for the study is sourced from the Kenya Integrated Household
Budget Survey (KIHBS) 2005/06. Available literature is used to identify livelihood
strategies in Turkana, while the KIHBS data is used to establish the population
of people pursuing each strategy. Anova and Bonferroni tests give evidence of the
existence of four livelihood strategies using food expenditure ratio as the categorizing
variable. Probit regression is used to estimate the determinants of food insecurity
in Turkana, while multinomial logit regression is used to do further analysis on the
determinants of livelihood strategies. The findings suggest correlation between food
insecurity and livelihood strategies. Policies that target livelihood strategies may
have implications on food security in Turkana. However, further analysis is required
to confirm the reverse causality between livelihood strategies and food insecurity.