FACTORS INFLUENCING PASTORAL AND AGROPASTORAL HOUSEHOLD VULNERABILITY TO FOOD INSECURITY IN THE DRYLANDS OF KENYA: A CASE STUDY OF KAJIADO AND MAKUENI COUNTIES DOROTHY A. AMWATA * , DICKSON M. NYARIKI and NASHON R. K. MUSIMBA South Eastern Kenya University (SEKU), Kitui, Kenya Abstract: This study establishes the determinants of household vulnerability to food insecurity in pastoral households of Kajiado and agropastoral households of Makueni Counties of Kenya. A randomly selected sample of 198 households was interviewed. Descriptive analysis showed that pastoral households of Kajiado County were more vulnerable to food insecurity (VFI) with a VFI of 0.59 than agropastoral households in Makueni County, who had a VFI of 0.27. Further, a two stage least squares approach established that vulnerability of households to food insecurity is determined by land size, household size, rainfall and herd size for Makueni County and access to climate information, herd size, off-farm employment and gender of the household head for Kajiado County. The findings imply that Makueni County needs access to and control over land resources, destocking through improved livestock breeds and creation of a microclimate to enhance rainfall levels. For Kajiado County, policies need to promote access to climate information, diversification of livelihoods and female access to production resources. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords: determinants; pastoral; food insecurity; drylands; agropastoral; vulnerability 1 INTRODUCTION Kenya’s long-term goal of food self-sufficiency remains unmet. Frequent droughts precipitate requests for donor-provided food aid to mitigate the ravages of famine, especially in ASALs, populated largely by livestock dependent pastoral tribes (United *Correspondence to: Dorothy A. Amwata, Department of Range and Wildlife Sciences, South Eastern Kenya University, P.O. Box 170-90200, Kitui, Kenya. E-mail: damwata@yahoo.com; damwata@seku.ac.ke Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Journal of International Development J. Int. Dev. (2015) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jid.3123