Arid and semi-arid rangelands in Sub-Saharan Africa is a critical grazing area that support approximately 250 million agro-pastoralists and pastoralists, by providing essential grazing resources and water. Increasingly these pastoral communities, including those in Kenyan drylands, face unique vulnerability to increased climate variability that has necessitated this study. This study set out to characterize climatic shocks that occurred for the last forty years, including their impacts on the Borana pastoralists and their livelihood in Northern Kenya. The study further analyzed the response measures taken by local people and their perspectives on the humanitarian responses. The aim was to unpack the synergy and areas of inconsistency to highlight the need for change in approaches in the face of drought and related shocks. A combination of focus group discussions, key informant interviews, narrative interviews and semi-structured interviews were conducted with communities and practitioners in Sololo area in Moyale sub-county. From the results, droughts were the main events recorded, accounting for ten shocks, out of the seventeen cumulative shocks mapped. Borana pastoralists described most of the last dozen years as drought years because of the frequency of drought, with extreme drought episodes singled out in post-2000. The 1983/1984, 2010/2011, 2016/2017 and 2020-2022 droughts, identified as the most severe droughts led to many households in Sololo either temporarily or permanently, unable to sustain their family following heavy loss of animals. The local responses and humanitarian actions on the ground were investigated, evidences points to inconsistency between how the two responses are structured and linked. However, this subject requires further research to fully ground the policy messages.