Secure rights to land and water resources are central to sustainable livelihoods of indigenous and pastoral communities Most indigenous peoples in Africa are nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists, and or hunter-gatherers. East African countries are home to Indigenous pastoralists, hunter and gatherers communities. It’s estimated that there are 268 million pastoralists who inhabit an area of approximately 43 percent of the total land mass on the continent (African Union, policy framework for pastoralism in East Africa, 2010, p. 9).

The International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs estimates the population of indigenous people in Africa to be around 50 million. pastoral sector accounts for between 10 and 44% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of African countries (Nyariki & Amwata, 2019).

However, most pastoralists are confronted with myriad of challenges such as: insecure tenure rights due to internal and external pressure on the land use including those related with conservation efforts, non-inclusive and unharmonized policies on the governance of land, conservation and rangeland management and management of other natural resources, land fragmentation and limited access to corridors and cross-border boundaries for transhumance, and increased negative impacts of climate induced hazards including land degradation and prolonged droughts.

The fact that lands which have been occupied by pastoralists outdate the current state borders in Africa can be seen in the occupation of most of the border areas of in Eastern Africa by pastoral groups, straddling the borders of Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Uganda (Herbert & Birch, 2022; UNEP).