Survival Strategies of Borderland Communities in Eastern Africa: Turkana-Pokot Cross-Border Pastoralists (Kenya-Uganda-South Sudan)

Abstract

This paper examines the survival strategies employed by Turkana and Pokot pastoralists in the tri-border region of Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan, an area characterised by recurring droughts, armed conflict, and increasing state intervention. Often depicted as marginal peripheries with state absence and chronic insecurity, these borderlands are navigated by communities as resources for survival, challenging their portrayal as mere barriers. Drawing on ethnographic insights and contemporary evidence, the study investigates how these pastoralists secure livelihoods and maintain social cohesion amidst colonial-imposed boundaries and state authority. Findings reveal four interconnected survival strategies: economic adaptation via diversified livelihoods and cross-border trade; kinship-based cooperation across national boundaries; strategic mobility exploiting border fluidity; and selective engagement with multiple state authorities. These demonstrate that borderland communities are active agents, creatively manipulating borders meant to constrain them. However, contradictions arise when strategies fail, escalate into violence, or face suppression by securitised state responses. The research challenges state-centric views of borders as fixed lines, advancing an understanding of them as lived spaces where communities exercise agency through resistance, negotiation, and adaptation. It contributes to borderland studies and has implications for pastoralist development, cross-border governance, and conflict resolution in Eastern Africa's arid borderlands. Sustainable interventions should build on existing community-led survival mechanisms rather than undermine them, recognising the sophisticated agency of borderland communities to inform effective policy approaches.