Humanitarian response and resilience programmes in pastoral areas in the Horn of Africa have taken place against a backdrop of significant transformation in the drylands. In many cases, perceptions that overlook the reality and the potential of the drylands have shaped these external interventions. Such interventions often frame pastoralists as ‘inherently vulnerable’, requiring recurrent relief and in need of diversification into alternative ‘more resilient livelihoods.’ However, a large body of work explores how pastoralists respond effectively to risks and uncertainties and are able to transform the variability that characterises their ecosystems into resilience. Seeing pastoralism as a ‘critical infrastructure’, networks of ‘high reliability professionals’ has the potential to support and sustain resilient pastoral livelihoods. In this paper we explore cases from northern Kenya on how reliability and ‘resilience from below’ are generated. We argue that approaches that focus on local practices, relationships, cultures, and knowledges are better placed to build resilience than more conventional development interventions that promote solutions-based project design. We find that networks of local high-reliability professionals engage in active and deliberate processes that combine multiple actions to support the larger system in times of crises. These individuals work across social and economic realms, through markets, and across regional and national borders to respond in real-time to unfolding variable conditions. In doing so, they establish a kind of grounded ‘relational resilience’ through iterative adjustment and dynamic adaptation, ensuring a recovery after acute crises and the successful negotiation of prevailing forms of uncertainty.