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By Juliet Akoth
Kajiado County, Kenya: In the dust and heat of Olooloitikosh village within Kajiado County, a local borehole functions as far more than just a necessary water point for cattle. For the Nadupoi women and youth group, it has become a crucial hub for planning survival strategies in the face of intensifying droughts and the growing unpredictability of pastoralist traditions.
With 28 members, this collective is primarily made up of elderly Maasai women. However, since 2023, Nadupoi has welcomed younger members who contribute valuable linguistic abilities, market insights, and innovative perspectives. By adopting climate-resilient agricultural techniques, the group is enhancing household food security and creating new revenue streams.
“I formed the group in 2021 because I wanted to unify women to find solutions to their own problems such as raising of school fees and medical fees as drought weakened their traditional livelihoods,” says Rebecca Koising’et, the group’s founder.
She adds “This coming together has helped us become one and advance while leaving no one behind”.
As a widow and the primary provider for her family, Immaculate Ntalalai joined Nadupoi at its inception and has personally witnessed its transformative power. Following her husband’s passing in early 2011, she was tasked with raising three children on her own.
The couple had previously operated a collective livestock business, where he managed meat sales and she handled milk. However, his death exposed her to significant vulnerability; in accordance with Maasai cultural norms, she lacked any legal claim to family property.
Exploiting this situation, male relatives intervened and liquidated the family’s livestock for their own gain. Drought then decimated her remaining herd, leaving her destitute.
“The situation was really bad after my husband’s death,” Ntalalai recalls.
Adding “I struggled to provide for my family until I learned about the group,” she said.
For Immaculate Ntalalai, becoming a member of Nadupoi was a turning point that reshaped her life. Supported by the compassion of her peers and access to modest loans featuring three-month grace periods, she was able to provide food and housing for her family while ensuring her children remained in school. Furthermore, these resources empowered her to rebuild her livelihood by acquiring a personal herd of four sheep.
Climate Smart Farming
The group’s biggest shift has been into farming. On an eight-acre parcel of community land entrusted to them by the Kajiado County Government, the women and youth now grow vegetables. They use climate smart practices, including crop diversification, bee keeping, organic manure and drip irrigation, to grow kales, curly kale, spinach, tomatoes and onions.
The efforts of the Nadupoi group align with the Kajiado County Climate Change Action Plan (2023–2027), which emphasizes the importance of water management, resilient livelihoods, and climate-smart agricultural practices. Their initiative also contributes to global targets, specifically Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger), Goal 5 (Gender Equality), and Goal 13 (Climate Action).
Jane Parletuan, the group’s secretary, explains that the members shifted their focus beyond traditional pastoralism after witnessing how increasingly frequent droughts devastated their cattle herds, leaving many families facing food insecurity.
“We realised we cannot depend on the cattle alone,” she notes.
Adding “When drought comes, it can wipe out the herds. So, we started farming vegetables and keeping chickens for eggs and other options for income and food,” Parletuan told this writer..
But she is quick to add that this does not mean abandoning cattle. Instead, she argues, keeping smaller, manageable herds alongside farming is safer than chasing big numbers in a dry climate.
Across much of Kenya, particularly within its arid and semi-arid regions, this process of adaptation is taking place against a backdrop of increasingly severe climate conditions.
According to Dr. Jackson Koimbori an agro-climatologist and the Senior Circular Economy and Climate Change Coordinator at the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) communities in these areas face critical risks from extreme heat, erratic rainfall, and water scarcity caused by drought. He notes that these environmental pressures manifest as livestock mortality, crop stress, and an intensifying state of local food insecurity.
“The key climate risks in most semi-arid regions in Kenya revolve around drought caused by rising temperatures and floods caused by extreme rainfall patterns,” stresses Dr. Koimbori.
He explains that the turn towards mixed livelihoods is a practical response. Crop production, he notes, demands less water than keeping large herds, while losses may be less devastating and drought tolerant varieties are more accessible than climate resilient livestock breeds, communities still have to balance market demand with what can survive locally, but he sees diversification as necessary.
“I think the shift is part of them trying to adapt to the changing climate as it is right now,” he notes.
Nadupoi has already tested that logic. After a fish farming venture stalled because a pond liner tore, the group assessed the cost of restarting it against other urgent needs and put more energy into onion production, a shorter cycle activity that could bring quicker returns.
In October 2025, the group planted onions on 1.5 acres of community land and harvested 927 kilograms in two batches by January.
“When the market is very good, we sell at Ksh 70 (US$ 0.53) per kilo but when it’s very bad, we sell at Ksh 55 (US$ 0.42),” notes youth leader Emmanuel Masaga.
The group made an estimated profit of Ksh 64,000 (US$ 489.39) from this venture.
Farming With a Fragile Water Lifeline
Despite their successful harvests, the Nadupoi collective faces a significant hurdle to expansion: they are currently only able to farm 1.5 acres of their eight-acre plot. This limitation is primarily due to concerns regarding security and water availability. While they rely on a community solar-powered borehole for irrigation, its output often diminishes during the dry season as the water table recedes.
Consequently, the group is forced to implement water rationing, alternating irrigation between different sections of the farm on a daily basis to manage the limited supply.
“It’s not that water doesn’t come out,” Masaga says.
“Sometimes it comes out a little. So, we have to ration how the water is used. If we water a part of the farm today, the next day it won’t be watered; instead, another area will be watered. That is how we survive with what we have.”
Koimbori cautions that boreholes alone cannot sustain adaptation in drylands because they depend on groundwater recharge and can fail when rainwater is not retained. He argues that communities need water harvesting and storage systems, such as dams, to farm more reliably through dry seasons. But infrastructure alone is not enough.
“The lack of funding is a key issue,” he says, warning that without steady financing, planning and timely information, local projects remain stuck in survival mode.
Despite the challenges they face, the Nadupoi Women and youth group is determined to be successful. Adaptation here is not a single act. It is a long, collective discipline, held together by women who refuse to be left behind, and by youth who refuse to watch their elders struggle alone.
This story was produced with support from MESHA and IDRC Eastern and Southern Africa office under the ARECCCA Project.
