Climate Change, Sustainable Development Goal 13, and Adaptive Pathways in the Kenyan Drylands Using Social Media

Abstract

This study examines social media communication in Kenya to assess how dryland pastoral concerns are represented in national climate policy dialogues. Approximately 80% of Kenya’s land area consists of drylands that support pastoral livelihoods, yet recurring droughts and increasingly variable rainfall threaten these social-ecological systems. Although Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Climate Action) emphasizes adaptation, progress is typically measured using national indicators that may overlook local priorities. We analyzed digital communications from pastoral nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations, newspapers, and government agencies using an adaptation pathways framework to examine links among climate risks, governance, and decision-making. Five themes emerged: water security, rangeland degradation and mobility, climate communication, gender and social inclusion, and climate finance. Kenya has developed relatively strong national climate policies, but social media reveals a persistent implementation gap between national policy and local pastoral priorities. Pastoral communities consistently emphasize Indigenous and local knowledge, women’s leadership, community participation, and locally appropriate adaptation strategies. Social media provides a novel source of evidence for identifying these local priorities and informing more participatory, place-based climate adaptation.

1. Introduction

Adaptation to climate change is increasingly urgent given rising greenhouse gas emissions, more frequent extreme weather events, and continuing environmental degradation. Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Climate Action) emphasizes strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity (United Nations, 2015; Epule et al., 2017). Similarly, the Paris Agreement calls for adaptation that is country-driven, participatory, gender-responsive, and informed by scientific, Indigenous, traditional, and local knowledge while being integrated across policy domains (UNFCCC, 2015; Ford et al., 2016).

Despite this emphasis, global and national-level adaptation strategies often prioritize technological and economic interventions—those more readily measurable—over social dimensions such as equity, justice, collaboration, and institutional flexibility (Patterson et al., 2017; Stojanovic et al., 2016; McIlwain et al., 2023). The SDGs, for example, provide universal goals and standardized indicators that allow comparisons among countries. This broad scope requires complex social–ecological conditions to be reduced to measurable categories. SDG 13 emphasizes national policies, institutional capacity, education, and early-warning systems, but its indicators provide limited information on whether adaptation measures align with the livelihood practices, social relationships, land-tenure arrangements, or environmental conditions of communities (United Nations, 2015). National averages can consequently conceal substantial differences among regions and social groups. This imbalance limits the effectiveness of adaptation efforts. Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) plays a critical role in understanding climate impacts on biophysical and socioeconomic systems, yet a gap persists between globally defined indicators and locally relevant priorities (McElwee et al., 2020; Zorondo-Rodríguez et al., 2014).

Adaptation is inherently place-based. Climate risk arises from the interaction between climatic hazards and locally differentiated exposure, vulnerability, institutions, livelihoods, and access to resources. The same drought may therefore have very different consequences for mobile pastoralists, settled farmers, and commercial livestock producers. Effective responses depend on such factors as mobility, customary resource access, labor availability, gender relations, local ecological knowledge, and political marginalization. The IPCC recognizes that community-based adaptation requires an understanding of sociopolitical context, including land tenure, ownership, gender, and local decision-making (IPCC, 2022b). Article 7.5 of the Paris Agreement states that adaptation should be guided by scientific, traditional, Indigenous, and local knowledge and should follow participatory and gender-responsive approaches (UNFCCC, 2015). The IPCC similarly concludes that ILK can provide essential insights into community needs and support more place-specific adaptation (IPCC, 2022a). Formal recognition, however, does not necessarily translate into influence over adaptation planning. Communities may be invited to provide information only after research questions, funding priorities, and adaptation options have been determined. Research on knowledge co-production indicates that participation frequently emphasizes collecting local knowledge rather than sharing authority over research design and decision-making (Sartorius et al., 2024). Local people may therefore become sources of information without having equivalent power to define climate risks, evaluate possible responses, or determine which adaptation strategies receive support.

The research gap, therefore, is not simply about transferring global climate information downward or local knowledge upward. It is to create sustained, multilevel processes through which communities, researchers, and government institutions jointly define climate risks, evaluate adaptation options, and revise strategies as conditions change. For Kenya’s drylands, this means aligning SDG and national climate objectives with pastoral priorities such as mobility, reciprocal access to resources, livestock health, water availability, customary governance, conflict management, and locally meaningful early-warning information. Social media can help identify concerns and adaptation strategies expressed by local organizations and leaders that may not appear in national indicators or formal assessment processes (Rahman et al., 2023). This study examines how climate risks, adaptation priorities, and governance challenges in Kenya’s pastoral drylands are represented on social media, and how these locally articulated concerns align with national climate policies and global frameworks, particularly SDG 13. Using digital communications from pastoral organizations, civil society groups, government agencies, and news media, the study identifies place-based priorities that may be overlooked in national indicators and formal policy reporting. The study addresses the following research question: How do social media communications concerning Kenya’s pastoral drylands represent local climate risks, adaptation priorities, and governance challenges, and to what extent do these concerns align with—or reveal gaps in—national climate policies and SDG 13?

To address this question, we apply an adaptation pathways framework linking climate uncertainty, governance, and decision-making. Although adaptation is defined in multiple ways within the global environmental change literature (Feola, 2015; Werners et al., 2021), the adaptation pathways approach is particularly appropriate for examining decisions under changing and uncertain conditions. The framework is guided by four principles: (1) climate impacts and responses are embedded within social–ecological systems; (2) adaptation must account for diverse and potentially conflicting stakeholder values and knowledge systems; (3) responses must operate across multiple spatial scales and sectors; and (4) planning must address both immediate drivers of vulnerability and underlying systemic conditions, including institutional and political marginalization (Butler et al., 2016).

This paper makes empirical, conceptual, and methodological contributions to climate adaptation research. Empirically, it identifies areas of alignment and disconnect between Kenya’s national climate policy commitments and the place-based priorities expressed by pastoral organizations and other dryland actors. It shows how concerns surrounding water security, rangeland access and mobility, climate communication, gender and social inclusion, and climate finance arise from social–ecological conditions that national indicators may not adequately capture. Conceptually, the article uses an adaptation pathways framework to connect pastoral knowledge and experience with adaptation planning across local, county, national, and global governance scales. Methodologically, it demonstrates how social media can provide a complementary source of evidence for identifying locally articulated priorities and implementation gaps. The study thereby contributes to research on place-based and locally led adaptation by showing how digital evidence can support more inclusive, contextually appropriate, and responsive climate policy.

1.1. Climate Change Adaptation in Africa

Although Africa contributes relatively little to global greenhouse gas emissions, it is among the region’s most vulnerable to anthropogenic climate change (Amegah et al., 2016). Projected impacts include rising temperatures, more frequent extreme heat, greater rainfall variability, increasing aridity, more frequent flooding, and sea-level rise, all of which threaten food and water security and the ecosystem services on which many livelihoods depend (Alagidede et al., 2016; Coffel et al., 2017; Serdeczny et al., 2017; Fuller et al., 2018). These multiple stressors underscore the need for effective adaptation strategies across the continent.

SDG 13 (Climate Action) promotes climate adaptation through nationally defined targets and indicators. Complementing this approach, the African Union’s Policy Framework for Pastoralism in Africa (African Union, 2013) provides a continent-wide framework for protecting pastoral livelihoods. Together, these initiatives establish a nested governance structure spanning global, continental, national, and local scales. However, pastoral systems operate according to ecological and social processes that frequently transcend administrative boundaries, creating challenges for implementing policies designed at broader scales.

Effective adaptation requires meaningful participation by local actors. Local engagement improves the relevance, legitimacy, and effectiveness of adaptation strategies by incorporating social, cultural, and environmental knowledge into decision-making (Sterling et al., 2017). Strong social capital, including inclusive institutions, transparent governance, fair conflict-resolution mechanisms, and opportunities for dialogue—further enhances community-based resource management (Musavengane & Simatele, 2017; Fjelde & von Uexkull, 2012; Hendrix & Salehyan, 2012). In contrast, elite capture can undermine trust, equity, and effective governance (Sterling et al., 2017).

Despite broad recognition of the importance of local participation, significant challenges remain in connecting place-based knowledge with policies developed at national, continental, and global scales. Aggregating local perspectives into broader policy frameworks can obscure important social and ecological differences, limiting the effectiveness of adaptation strategies. Addressing these cross-scale disconnects is therefore essential for developing adaptation policies that are both locally relevant and broadly applicable. Social media reveals adaptation pathways and local priorities that conventional SDG reporting and national policy fail to capture, and it helps identify gaps that locally led adaptation can fill (Rahman et al., 2023).

1.2. Climate Change in the Dryland Regions of Kenya

Approximately 80% of Kenya consists of arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) (Figure 1). These regions support about 10 million people, many of whom depend on pastoralism for their livelihoods. Livestock production contributes an estimated 10–13% of Kenya’s gross domestic product (GDP) and remains the most viable land-use system in much of the country’s drylands (Obath, 2020). In northern Kenya, pastoralism provides approximately 90% of youth employment and more than 95% of rural household income (Mokku, 2023).

Kenya’s drylands are experiencing increasing climate variability, including recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall, water scarcity, and episodic flooding (Connolly-Boutin & Smit, 2016). These pressures are compounded by population growth, expanding infrastructure, and rangeland fragmentation, all of which reduce livestock mobility—a fundamental adaptation strategy that enables pastoralists to access seasonal forage and water (Galvin et al., 2020; Reid et al., 2014). Together, these environmental and socioeconomic pressures threaten the long-term resilience of pastoral livelihoods.

Kenya has developed several policy instruments to strengthen climate adaptation in pastoral regions, including the National Policy for the Sustainable Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands (GOK, 2012), the Community Land Act (GOK, 2016), and County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs), which were introduced following devolution to better align national priorities with county-level development needs (CIDP, 2018–2022). Despite these initiatives, participation by dryland communities in national climate policy remains limited. The Climate Governance in Kenya report identifies stakeholder engagement as a continuing weakness in climate governance (Climate Action Tracker, 2020).

This disconnect between national policy, and local experience motivates the present study. Examining how Indigenous pastoralists discuss climate change through social media provides insight into locally perceived priorities, adaptation needs, and the extent to which existing policies reflect community perspectives.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Research Approach

This study uses digital ethnography to examine how Kenyan pastoralists and organizations discuss climate change and adaptation through social media. Digital ethnography treats online communication as a legitimate field site in which people construct meaning, exchange knowledge, and engage in social and political processes (Ardèvol & Gómez-Cruz, 2014; Bruijn, 2022; Muindi, 2018; Mosse, 2011; Paoli & D’Auria, 2025). Because digital interactions are embedded within everyday social life rather than separate from it, social media provides a valuable setting for examining contemporary environmental discourse (Aykut et al., 2024; Lähdesmäki et al., 2020). In a regional case, Serengeti Watch utilized a Facebook campaign to oppose a proposed highway, raising international awareness, influencing the Tanzanian government, and coordinating with other NGOs (Gardner, 2017).

Digital spaces have assumed an even greater role in public debates since the COVID-19 pandemic and are increasingly recognized as platforms for communication and discussion (Aykut et al., 2024). Platforms like X have provided activists and civil society leaders with direct communication channels to their audiences. Even in areas described as remote, mobile phones and social media increasingly allow individuals and organizations to engage with and discuss climate impacts and solutions (Bruijn, 2022).

2.2. Data Collection

Publicly accessible content was collected from Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram between May 2023 and August 2025 (Figure 2). These platforms were selected because Kenyan government agencies, civil society organizations, news media, pastoral organizations, and community leaders commonly use them to communicate about climate change and environmental issues. Although Facebook has the largest user base in Kenya, X plays a particularly important role in climate advocacy and policy discussions (Marion Suiseeya & Zanotti, 2019; Kemp, 2024; Aykut et al., 2024).

Social media accounts were identified through purposive and snowball sampling by country (Kenya) and by dryland county. Initial searches used hashtags and keywords related to climate change, adaptation, pastoralism, drylands, and relevant locations in Kenya. The search terms used for each platform are provided in the Supplementary Materials, Table S1. We identified additional accounts through interactions with previously selected accounts, including comments, co-posting, and organizational tags. Data collection was conducted via a virtual private network (VPN), with the location set to Kenya and county to mitigate the effects of location-based personalization on search results and recommended content.

The analysis focused on accounts belonging to Kenyan pastoral and civil society organizations, individual activists and community leaders, news media organizations, and government agencies. Organizations were included if they maintained an active public social media presence, regularly posted about climate change, drylands, pastoralism, or related issues, and demonstrated engagement with local actors. News media organizations were selected for their coverage of climate change and dryland issues, while government agencies were selected for their jurisdiction over or responsibilities for Kenya’s dryland regions. Account identities were verified through organizational websites and other publicly available sources to strengthen contextual reliability (Rana et al., 2022).

Posts from the selected accounts were included if they addressed climate change, adaptation, pastoralism, dryland livelihoods, or related environmental policies. A purposive sample of relevant posts was drawn from each account rather than including every post. When an organization published multiple posts about the same event or issue, we retained only one representative post to avoid overrepresenting repeated content.

The final dataset comprised 257 posts. Twenty pastoral and civil society organizations and individual activists or community leaders contributed 135 posts; nine news media organizations contributed 63 posts; and 10 government agencies contributed 59 posts. Supplementary Materials Tables S2–S4 provide details about the account categories and social media platforms. We interpreted social media content alongside government documents and news reports to provide contextual triangulation.

The searches were designed to capture discussions of climate change and adaptation in Kenya’s drylands rather than to produce an exhaustive inventory of Kenyan social media content. Because the objective was to examine discourse among key actors—not to estimate the prevalence of views among all Kenyan social media users—the sample was purposive and is not statistically representative. Consequently, the findings may not capture all perspectives or organizations involved in climate change and pastoral issues in Kenya. Language presented an additional limitation. Although most of the climate change discourse examined was posted in English, some posts and account names were in Swahili, potentially limiting the identification of relevant accounts and content.

2.3. Data Analysis

All materials were imported into Quirkos 2.3 (i.e., qualitative data analysis software) and analyzed using inductive open coding (Ryan & Bernard, 2003). Authors (Z W-H and KG) examined the posts, identifying frequent and significant concepts. We iteratively grouped codes into broader thematic categories. We applied the codes to relevant text, noting recurring ideas (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2013). We independently coded a subset of the data to evaluate the clarity and consistency of the coding framework. Coding decisions were discussed, refined and rules set for themes and patterns (Lincoln & Guba, 1986). The collaborative process enhanced the transparency and consistency of the analysis while retaining the interpretive character of qualitative coding. (O’Connor & Joffe, 2020). For example, codes related to drought, water shortages, and water infrastructure were combined into the broader theme Water.

3. Results

Five major themes emerged from the digital ethnographic analysis: Water, Rangelands, Communication, Gender, and Climate Finance.

Table 1. Summary of Social Media platforms and themes. (Accessed 2023–2025) *.

Type	Social Media Platform	Themes
		Water	Rangelands	Communication	Gender Issues	Climate Finance
Organizations	X Instagram Facebook Website	27	39	17	26	18
Individual activists	X Instagram	3	1	0	1	1
News media a	Instagram Facebook Website	20	18	10	2	13
Government agencies	Website, X Instagram Facebook	15	13	14	7	10
Total		65	71	41	38	42

* All supporting data can be found in the Supplementary Materials. ^a All news media have links via their websites to X, Facebook, and Linked-In.

summarizes the frequency of these themes across organizations, news media, government agencies, individual activists, and digital platforms (Facebook, X, Instagram, and organizational websites).

The most frequently discussed themes—water, rangelands, communication, and gender—are all place-based and relational, emphasizing governance, knowledge exchange, mobility, and social institutions. By contrast, themes that are more prominent in national policy, such as climate finance and technological interventions, receive comparatively less attention from grassroots communities and are often discussed in terms of equity, accountability, and local control. This contrast demonstrates that social media does more than identify local priorities; it reveals how pastoral communities conceptualize climate adaptation in ways that differ from policy frameworks.

Across all five themes, a common finding emerges that the principal difference between government policy and social media is not disagreement over climate risks, but disagreement over how adaptation should be governed. Government documents tend to emphasize institutions, programs, infrastructure, and financing, whereas social media consistently emphasizes participation, Indigenous knowledge, mobility, local leadership, equity, and accountability. Social media provides a window into place-based adaptation priorities that are often underrepresented in national policy frameworks.

3.1. Water

Water security dominated climate discussions across all social media platforms, indicating that access to water is perceived as the immediate constraint on climate adaptation in Kenya’s drylands. Rather than treating water as a single environmental issue, contributors consistently linked it to livestock survival, food security, mobility, education, gender equity, and local governance. The frequency and breadth of these discussions suggest that water functions as the organizing principle through which many pastoral communities understand climate change itself.

Across social media platforms, drought, water scarcity, flooding, and water management were consistently identified as major threats to pastoral livelihoods. Contributors emphasized that recurrent water shortages limit their ability to adapt to climate change by reducing access to drinking water for people and livestock, constraining mobility, and increasing livelihood insecurity. Improving access to clean water for both people and livestock was seen as an essential basic service.1 Pastoral groups, in particular, noted that the climate crisis is no longer a looming disaster but an already felt reality. During the 2023 drought, Kenya lost approximately 2.5 million livestock, while millions more experienced severe shortages of pasture and water (Mokku, 2023).

Flooding was also widely discussed, particularly in county government communications from areas such as Garissa, where extreme rainfall damages infrastructure, degrades water resources, and disrupts livelihoods. Social media posts and policy documents from county governments, such as Garissa County, indicate that the county is prone to flooding, which threatens livelihoods and leads to environmental degradation2. Social media highlighted locally led adaptation initiatives, including the work of the Ildalalekutuk Maasai Action for Development in Kajiado County, which promotes reliable access to clean water and reduces the burden on women and girls, who often travel long distances to collect it. Efforts to increase access to water keep girls in school.3 These initiatives emphasize community participation and collaboration among local organizations, county governments, national agencies, faith groups, NGOs, and development partners.

Posts from community organizations and NGOs frequently described practical adaptation measures, including rainwater harvesting, construction of water pans, dams, and boreholes, restoration of wetlands and seasonal rivers, and improved irrigation practices.4 Women in particular use year-round access to water for crop irrigation, which cushions them against food insecurity.5 However, contributors also expressed concern that poorly planned water infrastructure, particularly new dams and boreholes, could degrade natural lakes, rivers, and wetlands, illustrating tensions between expanding water access and protecting ecosystems.6

A recurring theme across platforms was concern about climate governance and financing around water issues. Kenya has established legal and institutional frameworks to address water issues in the context of climate change, including county-level Climate Change Funds7 that allocate resources to water management projects and integrate water resource management into Climate Change Action Plans. Numerous posts called for greater accountability, increased investment in grassroots organizations, and stronger community participation in decisions regarding water management and climate.8

The predominance of discussions about water harvesting, boreholes, dams, and catchment restoration suggests that adaptation is viewed less as technological innovation than as a means of improving access to reliable ecosystem services. At the same time, repeated concerns about ecological degradation from poorly planned infrastructure reveal that contributors recognize adaptation as involving tradeoffs between short-term water access and long-term ecosystem sustainability.

3.2. Rangelands

Rangelands constituted the single most frequently discussed adaptation issue across the digital ethnographic dataset, reflecting the central role of grazing systems in pastoral livelihoods. The dominance of this theme suggests that climate change is understood locally primarily through its effects on livestock and ecosystem productivity rather than through abstract indicators such as temperature or emissions.

Contributors linked prolonged drought, overgrazing, deforestation, and unsustainable land use to declining forage availability, livestock losses, and reduced household food security. Many posts also highlighted the spread of invasive species, particularly Opuntia and Prosopis juliflora, which further reduce grazing quality and limit access to productive rangelands.

Posts from pastoral organizations, NGOs, and government agencies emphasized a range of adaptation strategies intended to improve rangeland resilience. Frequently discussed approaches included rotational grazing, establishment of grazing blocks, restoration of degraded rangelands, conservation of drought-tolerant indigenous livestock breeds such as Red Maasai sheep and Sahiwal cattle, and diversification of livelihoods through activities including beekeeping, ecotourism, handicrafts, and, where feasible, crop production.9 Several posts also described the development of grass banks, hay reserves, dams, and boreholes to increase resilience during drought, often through partnerships involving county governments, national agencies, and international organizations such as the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The repeated emphasis on rotational grazing, restoration, indigenous livestock breeds, and mobility reflects a common narrative that resilience depends on maintaining ecological flexibility. Most discussions emphasize strengthening pastoral systems themselves. A recurring concern across social media was the governance of shared rangeland resources. Contributors described increasing competition for grazing land and water as drought intensifies, leading to conflict within and across communities.10 Cross-border livestock mobility was frequently presented as both an essential adaptation strategy and a growing source of political tension over resources.11 Discussions surrounding the 2024 negotiations between Kenya and Uganda to develop a Memorandum of Understanding on cross-border pastoral mobility reflected support for regional cooperation, but many contributors questioned whether existing agreements provide sufficient policy direction, funding, or enforcement to protect pastoralists’ access to shared rangeland resources.12

The prominence of discussions surrounding cross-border mobility indicates that governance challenges are becoming as important as ecological change. Contributors repeatedly framed mobility not as a problem requiring regulation but as an adaptive strategy requiring institutional support.

3.3. Communication

Communication emerged as a dominant enabling condition for adaptation rather than a stand-alone adaptation strategy. The high frequency of discussions concerning early warning systems, local languages, and Indigenous knowledge suggests that communities view access to usable climate information as fundamental to nearly every adaptation decision.

Across government agencies, NGOs, news media, and community organizations, social media discussions emphasized the importance of timely, accessible, and locally relevant climate information.13 National and county climate policies similarly identify public awareness, education, and stakeholder engagement as essential components of climate adaptation, with increasing emphasis on early warning systems and community participation.

Early warning systems were among the most frequently discussed adaptation strategies. Social media posts highlighted the value of weather forecasting, drought monitoring, and climate information services in reducing livestock losses and improving pastoral decision-making.14 Contributors described initiatives led by the Kenya Meteorological Department, the International Livestock Research Institute, county governments, and international partners to expand climate forecasting, automatic weather stations, and localized weather information.15 Examples included text-message forecasts delivered in local languages to support pastoral mobility and grazing decisions.16 Due to increasingly extreme and unreliable weather conditions, pastoralists are looking to other sources of information, technologies, and management practices rather than relying solely on traditional knowledge.17

Despite these advances, social media discussions consistently identified barriers to effective communication. Contributors noted that many pastoral communities have limited access to meteorological information, difficulties interpreting technical forecasts, and inadequate access to services because of distance, digital infrastructure, or language.18 Numerous posts emphasized that climate information should be communicated in local languages19 and integrated with Indigenous knowledge to improve its relevance and credibility.20 Rather than replacing traditional environmental knowledge, contributors argued that scientific forecasting and Indigenous knowledge should complement one another to strengthen locally appropriate adaptation strategies.21

Beyond weather forecasting, discussions also emphasized the need for improved communication regarding rangeland degradation, climate risks, and community-based monitoring. Across platforms, communication was framed not simply as information dissemination but as a participatory process that enables informed decision-making and strengthens climate resilience.22

One of the strongest narratives across platforms was that scientific forecasting should complement rather than replace Indigenous environmental knowledge. Unlike many policy documents that emphasize expanding meteorological services, social media contributors consistently framed adaptation as requiring the integration of multiple knowledge systems. This reflects a broader shift from one-way information delivery toward collaborative knowledge production.

3.4. Gender Issues

Gender discussions were dominated by two complementary narratives: women as disproportionately affected by climate change and women as essential agents of adaptation. The coexistence of these narratives distinguishes social media discussions from many policy documents, which more commonly frame women primarily as vulnerable populations.

Across Kenyan social media and policy documents, women and girls are consistently portrayed as disproportionately affected by climate change, particularly in the drylands.23 Posts frequently emphasize that prolonged drought, resource scarcity, and environmental degradation intensify existing gender inequalities. Water insecurity is a recurring concern because women are traditionally responsible for collecting household water. As shallow wells become less reliable, they must travel longer distances to obtain water, increasing both their workload and exposure to physical risks.24 Discussions also highlight higher rates of malnutrition among women and girls, increased mortality during climate-related disasters, greater incidence of child marriage as drought places economic stress on households, and heightened gender-based violence associated with resource scarcity.25

At the same time, social media presents pastoralist women not simply as vulnerable populations but as essential actors in climate adaptation. Numerous posts argue that women should play a larger role in climate policy development, implementation, and international climate negotiations because of their extensive knowledge of food production, livestock management, and local ecosystems.26 Women’s leadership is also linked to broader issues of food sovereignty, land tenure, and sustainable rangeland management.27 Examples include Samburu women’s groups leading rangeland restoration initiatives to improve pasture conditions for livestock and wildlife28 and the women-led Spring of the ASAL (Arid and Semi-Arid Lands) initiative, which combines community-based adaptation with efforts to reduce gender inequality and strengthen women’s roles within pastoralist communities.29

Food security and livelihood diversification are among the most common themes associated with women’s adaptation strategies. Social media highlights women harvesting rainwater for crop irrigation, producing grass seed and hay for income generation, participating in tree-planting programs, and joining other nature-based livelihood initiatives.30 News reports similarly describe pastoral households increasingly participating in women’s collectives to diversify incomes during periods of climatic uncertainty.31 Other examples include national campaigns promoting women-led climate action through clean cooking technologies, which reduce dependence on fuelwood while decreasing the time women and girls spend collecting firewood.32

Government policies broadly reinforce these themes through commitments to gender inclusion, although they typically frame women within broader categories of vulnerable populations. Garissa County’s Development Plan (2023–2027) reports increased household access to clean cooking technologies and emphasizes gender mainstreaming across all development sectors.33 Similarly, the Garissa County Climate Change Fund Act (2018), Kenya’s Climate Change Amendment Bill (2023), and the Ministry of Environment’s Climate Change Plan (2023–2027) all call for gender-responsive climate action, equitable representation, and economic empowerment of women through climate and landscape restoration programs.34

Despite these policy commitments, important differences emerge between official discourse and grassroots narratives. Government documents generally emphasize gender equity through representation, mainstreaming, and assistance to vulnerable groups. For example, the Deputy Governor of Marsabit County encouraged women, youth, and persons with disabilities to organize collectively to access government and NGO resources.35 In contrast, social media discussions more frequently portray women as knowledgeable leaders whose lived experience and environmental expertise are critical for successful climate adaptation. At the same time, posts acknowledge ongoing structural barriers, particularly in counties such as Turkana, where women remain underrepresented in local governance and face limited access to markets and public services. Overall, grassroots discussions frame women’s knowledge and leadership as central to climate adaptation, whereas government policies more often position women within broader frameworks of vulnerability and social inclusion.

The repeated emphasis on women’s leadership suggests that gender is viewed not simply as an issue of social equity but as a practical component of climate resilience. Contributors consistently linked women’s environmental knowledge to improved adaptation outcomes, indicating that participation itself is understood as an adaptive capacity.

3.5. Climate Finance

Climate finance appeared less frequently than water, rangelands, or communication, yet discussions surrounding funding revealed some of the strongest disagreements between government and grassroots perspectives. The comparatively lower frequency suggests that contributors are less concerned with financial mechanisms themselves than with how resources are distributed, governed, and translated into locally meaningful adaptation.

Many discussions highlight international and national financing mechanisms that support climate adaptation. In 2023, the European Union provided €13 million to Kenya to strengthen climate change mitigation and support a transition from reactive drought response to proactive drought management.36 Similarly, the National Drought Emergency Fund supports drought risk management through investments such as modernized early warning systems.37 The World Bank-funded Financing Locally Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) program operates across all 47 Kenyan counties and emphasizes participatory planning. For example, Kajiado County used the program to convene local stakeholders in identifying climate risks, priorities, and adaptation strategies.38

At the community level, social media emphasizes practical adaptation projects that depend on sustained external funding. Frequently discussed initiatives include water harvesting infrastructure, dams, water pans, piped water systems, catchment restoration, regenerative pastoralism, tree planting, and improved livestock management39. Several organizations are attempting to develop longer-term financing models. The Maasai Center for Regenerative Pastoralism, for example, combines tourism, education, and training in holistic grazing and drought-resilient agricultural practices to generate financial support while strengthening local livelihoods.40 County governments similarly promote locally financed adaptation through initiatives such as Garissa County’s Million Trees program, planned grazing, and promotion of indigenous livestock breeds.41 County Climate Change Funds in counties including Turkana, Marsabit, and Garissa provide financial support for locally identified adaptation priorities, while nongovernmental organizations such as Spring of the ASAL and Friends of Lake Turkana mobilize additional resources for projects including water access, ecosystem restoration, and tree planting.42

Carbon finance generates substantially more debate than other forms of climate funding. Government policies generally present carbon markets as opportunities to finance sustainable development and low-carbon growth, while social media, newspaper articles, and civil society organizations express a broader range of perspectives regarding their effectiveness and distributional impacts. National and county policies consistently promote emissions reductions and renewable energy, including solar-powered irrigation, geothermal development, and other low-carbon technologies. At the same time, public discussions question whether carbon finance adequately benefits pastoralist communities or primarily serves external interests.43

The Northern Rangelands Trust carbon project illustrates these tensions. Since 2010, the project has generated carbon credits through rangeland management and conservation activities.44 Supporters argue that revenues strengthen conservancies and improve rangeland management, whereas critics question whether financial benefits reach participating communities, whether estimates of carbon sequestration are adequately verified, and whether prescribed rotational grazing systems conflict with customary pastoral management practices and local governance institutions.45 These concerns illustrate broader debates about equity, accountability, and the compatibility of market-based conservation with Indigenous pastoral systems.

Similar debates surround Kenya’s Climate Change (Amendment) Bill of 2023, which seeks to expand carbon credit markets.46 While the legislation prohibits approval of emissions-credit projects associated with human rights violations or significant social and environmental harm, civil society organizations argue that it provides insufficient safeguards for community participation, land rights, and equitable benefit sharing. Critics also contend that carbon offset markets do not address the underlying drivers of greenhouse gas emissions because they allow continued emissions elsewhere while shifting mitigation activities to pastoral landscapes. Although the legislation identifies communities as stakeholders in negotiating community development agreements, questions remain regarding the strength of consultation requirements and mechanisms for ensuring meaningful local participation.47

The disproportionately high attention devoted to carbon markets relative to other financing mechanisms suggests that contributors see carbon finance as reflecting broader concerns about equity, accountability, and control over pastoral landscapes. Rather than debating carbon accounting alone, discussions repeatedly questioned who benefits, who bears the risks, and whose knowledge shapes climate investments.

4. Discussion

This study demonstrates that social media provides an additional source of evidence for understanding climate adaptation priorities that are often underrepresented in national policy assessments. While Kenya has developed one of Africa’s most comprehensive climate policy frameworks, digital ethnographic evidence reveals that pastoral communities consistently emphasize governance, mobility, water security, Indigenous knowledge, and women’s leadership as the practical foundations of climate adaptation. These findings suggest that implementation gaps arise less from the absence of policy than from differences in how adaptation priorities are defined and operationalized across governance scales. National policies generally recognize the importance of participation, Indigenous knowledge, and gender equity. However, social media discussions indicate that these principles remain difficult to operationalize within existing institutional arrangements. Contributors repeatedly emphasized representation, accountability, and locally controlled decision-making, suggesting that adaptation depends as much on governance processes as on technical interventions.

The strong overlap between the identified themes and multiple SDGs reinforces growing recognition that adaptation cannot be pursued as a single-sector objective. Successful adaptation also requires combining national policy frameworks with Indigenous and local knowledge (Friis-Hansen, 2017; Magni, 2017; McElwee et al., 2020; Adenle et al., 2017). Water security, rangeland management, gender equity, ecosystem conservation, and climate governance operate as interdependent components of pastoral livelihoods. The findings therefore support critiques of indicator-based SDG monitoring that argue national reporting often separates issues that communities experience as inseparable social-ecological processes.

Scale emerges as a fundamental challenge because climate governance is largely organized through administrative jurisdictions, whereas pastoral adaptation is organized through ecological variability. Rainfall, grazing resources, and livestock mobility rarely correspond to county or national boundaries, creating persistent mismatches between institutional authority and ecological processes. Similar governance challenges have been documented throughout African drylands and other pastoral regions, suggesting that this is a structural rather than uniquely Kenyan problem (Ndiritu et al., 2025).

Applying the adaptation pathways framework demonstrates that the barriers to adaptation identified in this study are not primarily technological (

Table 2. Adaptive Pathway Principles applied to Kenyan pastoralists.

Pathway	Policy	Perspective (Social Media)
Institutions and politics	Intergovernmental Relation Act, 2012 National Land Use Policy	Pastoralist agencies need to be involved in policymaking Fund grassroots organizations
2. Goals, values, and knowledge of stakeholders	Community Integrated Development Plans National Council for Nomadic Education (NACONEK) National Climate Change Authority	Need for local participation Access to alternative income sources Better communication, raise public education
3. Multiple scales (scale, sectors, jurisdictions)	Equalization Fund 2021 IGAD Transhumance Protocol	Intergovernmental coordination Mobility rights Cross-border transhumance
4.a. Adaptive strategies	Community Integrated Development Plans National Drought Emergency Authority Kenya Meteorological Department	Improve and ensure adequate budgets for the implementation of projects Climate change funds Rotational grazing programs Early warning systems
4.b. Systemic causes	National Policy on Gender and Development 2019	Improve access to clean water for women and girls Greater representation of women in policymaking Climate resilient infrastructure

). Across all four pathway principles, contributors consistently emphasized governance, knowledge exchange, institutional flexibility, and equity. These findings support recent scholarship arguing that adaptation pathways are fundamentally social and political processes that require continuous negotiation among actors operating across multiple scales rather than the implementation of predetermined technical solutions (Patterson et al., 2017).

Although all four adaptation pathways were represented in the data, social media discussions most frequently emphasized institutions, governance, and knowledge systems. In contrast, relatively fewer discussions focused solely on technological adaptation measures. This pattern suggests that pastoral communities view adaptation primarily as strengthening relationships among people, institutions, and ecosystems rather than implementing isolated projects.

The first pathway underscores the importance of institutions and politics. The Intergovernmental Relations Act (2012), for example, prioritizes pastoralists’ involvement in policymaking. Pastoral communities repeatedly call for stronger representation in policy development and greater recognition of customary governance institutions. These institutions have long managed common resources, mobility, and conflict resolution and remain central to adaptation in highly variable dryland environments.

The second pathway emphasizes the need to recognize diverse goals, values, and knowledge systems, though it is often included in plans and programs, such as those of the National Council for Nomadic Education (NACONEK). Although Kenyan policies acknowledge participation, social media discussions suggest that local knowledge is still not fully incorporated into planning and implementation. Contributors place particular emphasis on women’s leadership, pastoral education, secure land rights, and livelihood diversification as essential components of effective adaptation, as envisioned by the National Land Use Policy (GOK, 2017).

The third pathway focuses on multiple spatial and institutional scales (Geels, 2019). This emerged as one of the most significant challenges identified in the study. Adaptation policies frequently operate at the national or county level, while pastoral systems function across landscapes that span administrative boundaries. Bridging these jurisdictional mismatches will require stronger coordination among government agencies, greater support for cross-border mobility, and better incorporation of local priorities. Initiatives such as the Equalization Fund (GOK, 2021) illustrate efforts to address these cross-scale challenges.

The fourth pathway demonstrates that adaptation strategies must address both immediate climate risks and the systemic factors that create vulnerability. Investments in early warning systems, climate finance, rotational grazing, water infrastructure, and drought preparedness remain important. However, their effectiveness depends on addressing broader issues of political representation, gender inequality, land tenure, and equitable access to resources. The National Policy on Gender and Development (2019) is an example of efforts to examine and improve existing policies for vulnerable populations. These structural dimensions of vulnerability were emphasized consistently in social media discussions but received less attention in official policy documents.

The findings suggest that national institutions and pastoral communities understand climate adaptation in Kenya’s drylands differently. While national policies emphasize planning, financing, and institutional frameworks, social media discussions consistently frame adaptation as a question of governance, participation, and communities’ ability to respond flexibly to changing environmental conditions. The most frequently discussed themes—water, rangelands, communication, gender, and climate finance—are not independent issues but interconnected components of pastoral livelihoods. Their prominence indicates that adaptation is viewed locally as strengthening the social and ecological systems that support resilience rather than implementing isolated technical interventions. The consistency of these narratives across diverse social media actors suggests that they represent widely shared priorities rather than isolated opinions.

5. Conclusions

The study advances adaptation research in three ways. First, it shows that digital ethnography and social media can complement conventional policy analysis by revealing locally articulated adaptation priorities often absent from official documents. Traditional policy analyses primarily examine official documents, whereas digital ethnography captures ongoing conversations among community organizations, civil society groups, government agencies, and pastoral leaders. Although social media cannot represent every community equally and reflects uneven access to digital technologies, it provides a dynamic source of evidence for emerging concerns, contested policies, and locally defined adaptation priorities often absent from national reporting frameworks.

Digital ethnography also offers a practical and scalable approach to identifying emerging adaptation priorities, monitoring policy implementation, and strengthening communication between communities and government institutions. Used alongside conventional assessments, social media can help policymakers recognize evolving local concerns, evaluate whether adaptation investments address community priorities, and improve the responsiveness of climate governance.

Second, the findings strengthen adaptation pathways theory by showing that barriers to adaptation are primarily institutional and social, not technological. Across all four pathway principles, contributors emphasized governance, knowledge exchange, participation, mobility, and equity, indicating that adaptation is an ongoing process of negotiating relationships among communities, institutions, and ecosystems.

Finally, the study contributes to discussions of climate governance by demonstrating that implementation gaps arise less from a lack of policy than from differences in how adaptation is defined and operationalized across governance scales. Social media reveals that pastoral communities evaluate adaptation not simply by the existence of policies or projects, but by whether they strengthen local institutions, support customary practices, and improve communities’ capacity to respond to an increasingly uncertain climate. Therefore, the findings have wider relevance for climate adaptation in pastoral and other dryland regions. Many countries have developed increasingly sophisticated climate policies, yet implementation remains constrained by limited integration of local knowledge, governance institutions, and community priorities. Implications extend to pastoral and dryland regions globally. Many countries have adopted comprehensive climate adaptation policies aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement, yet implementation often remains constrained by weak connections between national planning and local priorities (Sever et al., 2025). The Kenyan case demonstrates that nationally standardized indicators may overlook the place-based realities that determine whether adaptation succeeds. Similar governance challenges—including cross-scale coordination, Indigenous knowledge integration, mobility rights, and equitable access to resources—have been documented in systems across East Africa, the Sahel, Central Asia, and other drylands (Gupta & Sigdel, 2024; Annan-Aggrey & Arku, 2024). The study therefore contributes to broader debates about how climate adaptation can better reflect local social-ecological conditions while remaining consistent with national and international policy frameworks.

Future research should examine how digital ethnography can be integrated with household surveys, participatory research, and policy evaluation to assess changes in adaptation priorities over time and across regions. Developing systematic approaches such as the adaptation pathways framework and incorporating community-generated evidence into climate decision-making will become increasingly important as countries implement the Sustainable Development Goals and National Adaptation Plans amid accelerating climate change.

Ultimately, effective climate adaptation depends not only on sound scientific evidence and national policy frameworks, but also on sustained engagement with the people most directly affected by environmental change. Recognizing local knowledge as an essential source of evidence—and creating institutional mechanisms to ensure it informs policy—will be critical to building resilient, equitable, and adaptive pastoral systems.

Note: ^a[Drylands are defined as areas where the aridity index (AI = annual precipitation ÷ potential evapotranspiration) is less than 0.65 (Reid et al., 2014; Reynolds et al., 2007). These regions have low and unpredictable rainfall, high evaporation rates and sparse vegetation. They cover about 41% of the Earth’s land surface and drylands is the term used in UN frameworks. Arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) are a subset of global drylands, and the term is most often used in East Africa regarding development policy, pastoralism, and drought management (GOK, 2012; Opiyo et al., 2014). Rangelands are ecosystems managed primarily for grazing livestock and wildlife. They are dominated by native vegetation such as grasses, shrubs and open landscapes rather than crops (Reid et al., 2014; Allen et al., 2011).