By Hereward Holland

EL RAM, Kenya, May 9 (Reuters) - It is tempting to romanticise the lifestyle of nomads in Kenya's northeast -- a land peppered with vast termite mounds which burst from rust-coloured soil like fingers pointing to the cloudless sky.

For centuries, Muslim pastoralist tribes have roamed the semi-arid wastelands, in perpetual pursuit of pasture and water, seemingly oblivious to the borders of Somalia and Ethiopia.

Despite the picture-book image, these tribes, neglected for generations by the Nairobi government and colonial administrations, are at the sharp edge of global conundrums of poverty, environmental damage and now the food price crisis.

The nomads are among the most vulnerable people in east Africa's largest economy, where per capita income is around $580. The government expects growth of 4-6 percent this year.

In El Ram, an isolated settlement 80 km (50 miles) from El Wak on the Somali border, the nomads' survival is inextricably linked to fluctuations in local and global markets, and political machinations in the distant capital Nairobi.

They earn a meagre income from selling milk and, on occasion, livestock. The rise in global food prices means that, like many other Africans, their purchasing pow