Most pastoralists households are adversely affected by shocks such as droughts, livestock diseases and declining pasture availability. These shocks lead to deterioration of livestock quality and even mass death of herds. This leaves pastoralists households vulnerable as they derive most of their food and income needs from livestock, necessitating the need to build resilience to these shocks. Against this back drop, this study analyzed factors that build household resilience among the pastoralists of West Pokot County. The household resilience index was constructed using Principal Component Analysis, PCA. An ordered probit regression was used to analyze the effect of socio-demographic and institutional factors on households resilience. It was noted that years of schooling, household income, access to credit and extension and livestock management practices such as post harvest use of field crops for grazing, enclosures, stocking improved breeds, bee keeping, ethno-veterinary practices and afforestation have a positive and significant effect in building household resilience to shocks. There is therefore the need to direct investment to bolster pastoralists own efforts in this regard to realize the attainment of more resilient households. Key words: Shocks, Vulnerability, Resilience, Pastoralists Acknowledgement : We acknowledge the financial support received from African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and the Triple L Project in West Pokot County for funding different components of this study, the research team for their cooperation in data collection and the respondents in West Pokot for their support during the field study.