ABSTRACT
Literature on migration and climate change tend to highlight how communities are increasingly being forced to relocate due to climate and environmental changes. Much less has been said about those communities that are getting trapped by climate and environmental changes. The erections of political and administrative boundaries and climate and environmental changes are adversely affecting pastoral communities that are heavily dependent on seasonal migration as a way of life. The Pokot of Kenya is one such community facing grim choices; an uncertain future without their livestock or the options to fight and protect their livelihoods. The Pokot are responding through a combination of techniques to delay and resist these imminent changes. Firstly, they invoke age-old cultural practices based on seasonal migration to justify their lifestyles; secondly, they have acquired and adopted modern firearms to protect themselves against neighbouring communities; and finally, the Pokot political leadership has adopted expansionist ideology to violently protest these changes. However, the government of Kenya's response anchored on disarmament is slowly forcing the Pokot to rethink seasonal migration as a form of livelihood. The Pokot are forced to “migrate out of seasonal migration”.
