By Adan Mohamed - Reporter
14 January 2026 - Livestock keeping remains the backbone of life in Mandera County, with most households depending on cattle, goats, sheep, and camels for their daily survival.
The loss of animals has therefore dealt a heavy blow to most of the households.
This is caused by underperformance of the MAM 2025 rains and failure of the October-November-December rains -OND.
The failure of these three consecutive rains has resulted in a rapid deterioration of rangeland conditions, acute pasture scarcity, and a drastic reduction in water availability.
Pasture conditions across all sub-counties remain very poor, indicating severe forage scarcity for livestock.
Most of the residents who are pastoral households are trekking livestock over long distances, between 30-50 kilometres in search of water and pasture, leading to increased livestock mortalities (particularly sheep, goats, and cattle), sharp decline in livestock productivity, distress livestock sales at depressed prices, and household food insecurity, with rising malnutrition among children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
The most affected sub-counties include Lafey, Mandera North, Mandera South, Mandera East, Mandera West, and Banisa, hosting the largest concentration of pastoral families.
In most of the livestock markets across the most affected regions, particularly Mandera North, the body conditioning of the animals in the market indicate critical deterioration reflecting severe nutritional stress due to prolonged feed shortages, such as pasture depletion and starvation.
This has severely depressed livestock market prices with Goats currently fetching kenya shillings 700-1500 per goat.
Mohamed Dere, a livestock trader at Rhamu Livestock Market in Mandera North, says the ongoing drought has drastically reduced the value of his goats.
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“Before the drought, a single goat could fetch up to KSh 17,000,” he said.
“Now I am forced to sell them for as little as KSh 1,000 each to avoid losing them completely to starvation and disease.”
Livestock, which remains the main source of livelihood for many households—particularly as a source of milk—has been severely affected by the ongoing drought.
Milk production has drastically declined, with average household consumption dropping to about 0.2 litres per day, compared to nearly four litres before the drought.
The situation has been worsened by prolonged dry conditions that have forced livestock to trek long distances in search of water, further reducing feed availability and weakening animal health.
“Our animals can no longer produce milk like before because they walk very far to find water and pasture,” said Osman Gabow, a resident in Mandera North “Some days, there is almost no milk at all for our families.”
Pastoralists also incurred heavy losses for their animals with more than 25,000 lost already as of this January 2026 with Lafey, Banisa, and Mandera North accounting for the largest death of livestocks indicating acute drought impact significant pasture and water stress and heightened livestock mortality.
Local leaders warn that if immediate interventions are not intensified, the continued loss of livestock could deepen poverty, worsen malnutrition, and threaten the survival of pastoral communities across Mandera County.
