Kenya
International Alert has worked in Kenya since 2007, supporting conflict prevention, climate security, and locally led peacebuilding across the country’s most fragile regions.
We help communities, governments, civil society, and private sector to effectively tackle the root causes of conflict – from climate stress and resource competition to political exclusion and gender inequality. Our approach combines direct support to communities with research and policy engagement, encouraging solutions that are sensitive to conflict and gender at county and national level. Our work focuses on three interconnected areas:
- strengthening how governments deliver services and respond to community needs;
- encouraging businesses and private sector to operate responsibly and avoid contributing to conflict (for example, by adopting heightened human rights due diligence standards); and
- supporting inclusive management and governance of land, water, and pasture – particularly in the arid and semi-arid north, where climate pressures, economic hardship, and political tensions converge.
Our team is based in Nairobi, with local partners across West Pokot, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Baringo and Turkana counties, as well as in Ethiopia.
Our current projects
We run two active projects at the intersection of climate change, conflict, and gender – areas where evidence shows that integrated efforts deliver the most durable results:
In Kenya’s West Pokot, Elgeyo-Marakwet, and Baringo counties, we support communities and governments to tackle climate and conflict challenges together so they can better adapt to their combined impacts. This means creating spaces and mechanisms for people from different communities to develop joint solutions to disputes over land and water before they escalate; equipping local leaders and institutions with the skills and knowledge to respond to climate pressures without resorting to violence; and working with county and national policymakers to ensure that plans for climate adaptation reflect the realities of conflict-affected areas.
In the Turkana-Omo borderlands between northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia, we work with women and pastoralist communities to ease tensions over land and water, and to strengthen cooperation between communities and governments on both sides of the border. This is an area where climate change and resource competition are limiting the livelihoods, safety, and ability of women and girls to participate in decisions that affect them. By creating space for women to lead and contribute to cross-border discussions, we ensure their experiences shape the solutions.
Our partners
- Catholic Peace and Justice Department (CJPD)
Understanding conflict context in Kenya
Since 2007-2008 post-election crisis, Kenya has been spared the large-scale violence seen elsewhere in the region. Yet, for millions of people, there is real threat of conflict. Governance failures, competition for resources, economic exclusion, ethnic tensions, and climate change create overlapping pressures that are difficult to manage peacefully.
The effects on Kenya’s development and security are felt most in arid and semi-arid north, which covers over 80% of the country. There, recurring droughts, floods, and shrinking water and pasture increase competition between communities that depend entirely on natural resources. Raids to seize livestock – the primary source of food, income, and social status for many pastoralist communities – are common. But so is the retaliatory violence that follows. The ready availability of small arms feeds this violence and destabilises communities on both sides of Kenya’s borders with Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Uganda.
These communities are also among those least well-served by the state – and that absence creates further risks. In north-eastern, coastal, and urban areas, marginalisation, exclusion, and unemployment make young people more vulnerable to recruitment by armed groups. Security operations have made some progress in disrupting violent extremism networks, but without tackling the root causes, they risk deepening the grievances that drive radicalisation.
Rapid economic development also generates resentment and new risks alongside opportunities. Investment in infrastructure, mining of gold and minerals, agribusiness, and energy is growing. However, if these projects ignore the context and neglect the rights and needs of local communities, they can inflame disputes that undermine their success.
That sense of exclusion feeds into Kenya’s volatile political landscape. While the 2022 elections passed without widespread violence, unresolved long-standing grievances over land, representation, and resources risk resurfacing with intensity as 2027 voting approaches and new pressures emerge. From 2024, proposed tax rises sparked a wave of protest led largely by young people (or ‘Gen Z’). Though largely non-violent, this unrest has increased tensions between citizens and the state as it reflected deeper frustrations around the cost of living and a feeling of being shut out of decisions that shape their lives.
Women and girls are exposed to all of these pressures acutely – facing higher rates of violence, displacement, and poverty. Yet they still play a key role in supporting their communities and informal peace efforts – a reality that is at the heart of our work in East Africa.
Turbulent waters, troubled shores
Conflicts between communities in the Lake Turkana area have been escalating in recent years, with repercussions for local and regional security and stability. Our in-depth conflict analysis in Kenya’s Marsabit and Turkana counties offers insights into the dynamics and root causes of conflict in the region, including factors linked to climate change, as well as other social, political, environmental and economic issues.
Get in touch with our Kenya team
