Ecology and History as Essentials of Deprivation in Turkana County Kenya

Turkana County is one of the forty seven counties in Kenya that were created after promulgation of the constitution in 2010. It is the largest and poorest county. A lot of debates on the causes of underdevelopment have been advanced but none focused on history and ecology as the epitome. This study intended to find out the ecological and historical causes of underdevelopment in Turkana County. It set out also to find out why the colonial administration was unwilling to transform the Turkana people. Historical research design was used in this study. Two research instruments were used. These were questionnaires and oral interviews. Archival sources from the Kenya National Archives (KNA) in Nairobi, published books, journals and government reports were utilized. Modernization theory as expounded by (Bernstein, 1971) was applied as its tool of analysis. It was found out that the problem of underdevelopment in Turkana County was majorly as a result of history and ecology. Historically the counties suffered as a result of colonial policy of conquer and punish. The administration deliberately marginalized the county because it perceived it as arid and therefore unproductive and uneconomical. It declared it a closed district. Turkana pastoralists were seen as backward and suffering from cattle complex that proved difficult to “civilize” Keywords: Turkana, Punitive, Underdevelopment, Colonial, Pastoralism