10th U6+ Consortium of African Universities International Conference

Pastoralist communities in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) of Northern Kenya have long relied on highly sophisticated Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) to navigate extreme climate variability. However, accelerating climate change, socio-ecological pressures, and technocratic policy frameworks increasingly threaten the continuity and operational authority of these traditional practices. This paper review synthesizes research on the role, efficacy, and structural challenges of IKS in climate adaptation among Northern Kenyan pastoralists, evaluating how local expertise interacts with formal climate governance. Following a systematic review methodology, this paper analyzes recent empirical literature, case studies, and policy frameworks concerning traditional ecological knowledge across major pastoralist communities, including the Turkana, Somali, Borana, and Rendille. Thematic synthesis served as the primary analytical method and narrative summaries were generated to cross-examine study characteristics. The review demonstrates that indigenous practices such as monitoring animal behavior and plant phenology, managing grass reserves, and enforcing customary resource laws significantly reduce climate vulnerabilities and livestock mortality. Despite this high efficacy, these systems face severe degradation due to land fragmentation, changing social dynamics that disrupt intergenerational knowledge transmission and persistent epistemic injustice where formal institutions routinely prioritize Western scientific data over indigenous worldviews. Building meaningful climate resilience in Northern Kenya requires moving away from the tokenistic inclusion of local communities toward genuine epistemic pluralism. Sustainable adaptation depends on institutionalizing hybrid early warning frameworks, formalizing cross-border governance platforms, and implementing co-produced, gender-responsive research methodologies that treat pastoralists as equal partners and primary rights holders in climate action.