Interstitial pastoralism at the economic frontier of Kenya’s Central Rift Valley

This article explores pastoral change in Kenya’s Central Rift Valley. It discusses how local pastoralists have adapted livestock mobility to a landscape subjected to the advancement of economic frontiers and rapid urbanization. We argue that the set of strategies deployed is constitutive of ‘interstitial pastoralism.’ This is present in many contemporary contexts where pastoralists are squeezed in the interstices of rangelands that they no longer control, and struggle for access to grazing grounds and social recognition. This struggle configures as part of peasants’ adaptation and resistance vis-à-vis global capital expansion and its manifestations.