Cooking is one of the most repetitive activities in almost every household. In Kenya, most of the population uses wood fuel – firewood and charcoal – to cook. A study on the sources of heat energy used in Kenyan households, conducted by the Kenyan Ministry of Energy in collaboration with the Clean Cooking Association of Kenya, estimated that in 2019, over 75% of the country’s population used wood fuel as their primary source of cooking energy¹. With a governmental intervention in 2019, the number reduced to 68% by 2022 ^2. While the reduced percentage is taken as a success aspect, the change is minimal when comparing it with the uptake of electrical access, which increased from about 20% in 2013 to over 77% in 2019 ³. Consequently, Kenya boasts of its renewable energy capacity though it needs to recognise that despite having over 90% of its electrical energy coming from renewable sources³., there is still a large dependence on wood fuel for heat energy in most Kenyan households, with or without electricity.

The dependence on wood fuel in Kenya has multifaceted disadvantages in the collective growth of the Kenyan economy and the citizens’ well-being. The process requires the clearance of forests, which stagnates Kenya’s efforts in reducing carbon emissions and tackling climate change². Burning charcoal also increases the risk and prevalence of forest fires, affecting both the flora and fauna. In most Kenyan communities, there is a cultural drudgery that subjects women and children, mostly girls, to the collection of firewood and preparation of meals ⁴. The continued use of wood fuel exposes users to smoke and particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and other hydrocarbon compounds that have a dangerous effect on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems of the users ⁵. In 2021, the Kenyan Ministry of Health recorded that indoor pollution, caused mainly by the combustion of wood fuel and other biomass energy, caused over 23,000 deaths⁶. Majority of the deaths were women and children. The number was bound to increase with the economic upheavals after the COVID-19 pandemic. The cultural drudgery systematically exposes women and girls to a health risk. The use of wood fuel, its value chain, and its effects highlight the need to facilitate a necessary phase-out of wood fuel for social, environmental and economic prosperity. It is also critical as a matter of human rights and sustainable development as the wood fuel crisis cuts across the concerns of human dignity, public health, gender equality, environmental health, and economic development, all of which are enshrined in the 2010 Kenyan constitution.

Review of Current Status

An analysis of state reports and independent research shows that the effects of wood fuel are well known, and considerable interventions have been done to promote a transition to clean fuel⁷. The progress is dismal. An awareness campaign dubbed ‘upishi bora, afya bora” (clean cooking, good health), was also run nationwide through 2022, but its goals were not met as it was centred around behavioural change and communication, with rural women being the primary stakeholders and audience of the campaign. The campaign focused on spreading awareness, but no specific systems were put in place to allow for a transition or change from dependence on wood fuel. The effort was also misplaced, as the campaign review reports that Kenyan policymakers in both the national and county governments have minimal interest in clean cooking energy. Policymakers were primarily interested in social and economic issues that lead directly to economic growth, and they do not consider cooking energy an urgent issue²⁰. The negligence also iterates the level of gender inequality in Kenya’s political and decision-making spheres, where women are marginalised and underrepresented⁸. The people who are highly affected by the effects of wood fuel -women – do not have access to influential policy-making spaces where they can enact change.

Additionally, cheap firewood and charcoal are conveniently available¹. In collaboration with local and international multilateral finance institutions and non- governmental organisations, the Kenyan government has made several interventions to promote the use of alternative fuel⁹. The interventions, however, are built on the economic and environmental effects of using wood fuel, with minimal to no consideration of the social effects of the practice. Critical issues such as health, gender, working conditions and quality of life are not addressed¹⁰. The social needs for the change are urgent and critical and should be prioritised, seconded by the economic and environmental needs.

In its quest to be a leading country in mitigating climate change, Kenya has also had three sets of comprehensive legal frameworks to accelerate climate actions: the first, second and third Kenya National Climate Change Action Plans (NCCAP) 2013 -2017, 2018-2022 11, 2023-2027 ¹². In all three documents, the Kenyan government states its need to improve the distribution of clean energy solutions to households and institutions. However, it needs to provide a policy framework on how the distribution and adaption of clean energy would be actualised. The annual fiscal plans and budgets also fail to introduce specific incentivising regulations and policies that would lead to a sustainable change from using wood fuel to clean cooking energy¹³. There is a focus on creating awareness periodically, but the government still needs to create an environment that facilitates the uptake of cleaner cooking energy options. The awareness campaigns are only helpful if alternatives are made available.

Current Interventions and Opportunity Areas

Kenya has put considerable effort into reducing wood fuel dependence by providing an alternative to other biomass fuel and more efficient cookstoves ¹⁴. The cookstoves burn charcoal and other biomass fuel more slowly and efficiently, reducing the emission of smoke and the amount of fuel used in cooking, thus cutting the cost, and reducing the emission of particulate matter⁷. The irony is that some frequently used biomass fuels, including briquettes, mostly need ash from burnt charcoal or only reduce the cost¹⁵. While successfully cutting costs, improved cookstoves fail to acknowledge the nuanced social, cultural, and technological problems that are immediate barriers to adopting clean cooking energy.

Within the same research and government publications, there is a general agreement that electricity and liquid petroleum gas (LPG) are the most efficient and clean cooking energy sources. The options are, however, immediately shunned and ignored due to the need for upfront cost to install or buy equipment ¹⁶. However, this paper recognises and acknowledges that the cost factor is a problem to be solved, rather than avoided. Additionally, factoring in the unintended health and environmental effects, the overall distributed cost of wood fuel is more significant compared to the use of electricity and LPG. Electricity and LPG are also readily available in the country. In extreme cases where electricity and LPG are inaccessible, biogas and other cleaner fuels are an option.

Generally, the government ministries for Energy and Forestry have always intervened and proposed policies to reduce the use of wood fuel. More than the current ministries’ mandate, network and primary stakeholders are needed to deal with the issue, which cuts across other essential structures of the Kenyan Community. A more controlled, continuous, and multi-sectoral approach is recommended. The treasury and economic planning department should be involved in creating fiscal incentives. The education department should be involved in creating awareness and using its technical institutes for educational training on clean cooking energy. Trade, investment, and industry departments can improve the local production and distribution of necessary equipment. The Ministry for Environment and Forestry is expected to prevent the continuous felling of trees for wood fuel. The Ministry of Health is responsible for providing data on areas affected mainly by wood fuel-related complications and intervening from a health perspective, and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum can assess the situation through energy distribution, use and management. The Ministry of Gender and Culture is also responsible for ensuring that the upholding of cultural practices does not aggravate discrimination and exposure to harmful practices. It is the general role of the national and county governments to enact and implement policies and to develop development frameworks that would lead to the eventual phase-out of the use of wood fuel.

To address the continued use of wood fuel, the Kenyan government needs to do more than creating awareness and distributing efficient cookstoves. A more nuanced approach would take different fronts, creating and implementing substantive, regulatory and distribution policies that would directly affect the social, economic, and environmental triggers of the problem. The policies should trickle down from the national government, replicated in the local county governments and other administrative units. The decentralised Kenyan government is an advantage in getting information and efforts to the grassroots, ensuring that rural areas are included when running national policies. The provided regulations should be legislated as laws, developing a legal backing that would support the transition process.

Recommended Policy Change Educational Intervention.

Creating innovative educational networks and opportunities is essential to facilitate the switch from wood fuel to clean energy cooking systems. Research has highlighted the capacity of Kenyan technical and vocational institutes to introduce and uptake new practices, especially in rural areas²². The institutes are a reliable space for introducing technical training on producing, repairing, and installing clean cooking equipment. Training on installing, maintaining, and repairing additional clean energy sources, such as biogas digesters, would be relevant in agricultural-rich regions of the country. Training on electrical work should include inputs beyond lighting and machinery, including heating. Heating training has always been ignored as house heating in extremely low temperatures is rare in Kenya due to its geographic location. It is also an additional convenience as the rural areas have the highest prevalence of wood fuel, and most of the vocational and technical institutes are located in the villages.

Structural Intervention

The public amenities managed by national and country governments should transition from using wood fuel to using electricity. Electrical heating is the most efficient in the country and the least efficient in terms of carbon emission, cooking efficiency and the absence of pollutants ¹⁶. Public hospitals, schools and halls should be prioritised in the government-led transition. The same regulations should be implemented, with a grace period provided to enact the change. Such government- led regulations have worked in the past, especially with the nationwide education reforms, road transport reforms and the move from analogue to digital television transmission. Again, with the distribution of government services from the national to county level, the regulations would not require the setup of new systems to manage them.

Kenya recently witnessed an increase in the construction and real estate industry. The Kenyan Energy Act ¹⁷ currently provides directives for the types of wires and sockets used in electrical installations, with their respective power capacity for refrigerators, televisions, water heaters and several other home appliances. Explicit directives for heating appliances are only available for the industrial level. The absence of cooking-related directives demonstrates negligence and inadequate support for using electricity as cooking energy. The Energy Act can be revised to include regulations and requirements on preferred heating installation in residential and commercial spaces requiring cooking energy. The residential rental buildings can be included in regulations that stipulate the construction of systems for the use of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) or permanent electrical cooking equipment, depending on the provided government infrastructure therein.

In the past, transport inaccessibility was why LPG was not a preferred cooking option in the country ^16. It is ascertained that the upfront cost of buying the gas cylinders obstructed the move from wood fuel to LPG. However, between 2013 and 2022, there was a considerable increase in rail and road infrastructure in Kenya. Other strategic transport infrastructure projects are currently in development, for example, the LAPPSET Corridor Development project ¹⁸, which will add to the connection of the Mombasa port to the Kenyan interior and connect Kenya with its neighbours. Currently, road accessibility is reduced to an average travel time to the nearest town centre of about one hour by public transport ¹⁹. The reduced travel time allows for access to the numerous gas stations all over the country. There have been incentives developed to support the uptake of efficient cookstoves, and the program can be expanded to include more efficient gas and electricity cooking materials. The current transport network in Kenya poses no challenge to the distribution of gas cylinders. In that light, the cost issue is fixable through different paying mechanisms that can be negotiated to favour the transition from wood fuel to gas.

Regulatory Intervention

The production of charcoal is a largely unregulated practice in the country despite the numerous health and environmental risks1. Strict regulations should be put in place to reduce and manage the burning of charcoal. The regulations should allow a phase-out of charcoal production over a stipulated period. The collection of firewood from public forests should also be phased out. The indifferences that allow public collection of firewood in public forests have increased the occurrence of illegal logging under the pretence of firewood collection10. It should be the official responsibility of the Kenya Forest Service to remove dead and fallen trees from public forests.

The production of firewood from private foresters should be regulated as its accessibility and cheapness are some of the primary reasons why people opt for wood fuel for clean cooking energy. While foresters can plant forests for construction and carpentry wood, the waste parts of the plants should be channelled into other uses and not left as a quick access source of firewood without regulatory frameworks. The rise of carbon credits market is an opportunity that would replace their move from farming trees for firewood and charcoal. There is also an increase in the controlled production of biochar for soil restoration, which requires either wood or other biomass in the process. The phase-out of wood fuel should not be taken as an economic witch-hunt on the people within the forestry industry, but an opportunity to diversify their markets.

Considering that the accessibility to clean energy sources is unequal across the country, a zoning act can be implemented. The metropolitan areas within major cities would be recommendable for using electricity and LPG as primary sources of cooking energy. Beyond the cities, the regulations can be less strict, depending on their energy security, and the distribution of depots for gas cylinders. This, of course, would only be possible with stringent actions to ensure that clean cooking equipment, installation and maintenance costs are subsidised or placed within any other financial incentives that prioritise them over wood fuel.

Balancing Risks and Trade-offs

Research and economic policies have consistently argued that the intervention to reduce the use of wood fuel is not welcome as a massive population depends on producing and selling firewood and charcoal as sources of livelihood^20,23. On the contrary, there is a wide range of research that highlights the numerous health hazards resulting from producing, distributing, and using wood fuel in households²¹. With regards to the fact that it is primarily the people in the extremely low-income bracket who are involved in the wood fuel value chain¹, then it is discriminatory that the citizens are not protected from activities that subject them to danger. Additionally, women are also victims of the end use of the wood fuel value chain and are heavily exposed to household air pollution. Pragmatically, the refrain from phasing out wood fuel should be considered unethical and illegal. The 2010 Kenyan constitution provides for the protection and access to the right to a clean environment, stipulating that every citizen is entitled to a clean and healthy environment, including the elimination of processes and activities that are likely to endanger the environment and its inhabitants. Consumer rights also highlight the right to access goods that do not deliberately pose a danger to the health and safety of the consumers. With the phase-out of wood fuel, a collaborative intervention should be put in place to find alternatives. The need for alternatives is also a constitutional provision, as it is the state’s responsibility to offer suitable social security to individuals incapable of providing for themselves and their dependents. It is the state’s responsibility to ensure that its citizens are not involved in economic activities that are a health and environmental hazard.

The mandate to include clean cooking installation would increase the equipment’s demand and cost. The cost increase can be averted by ensuring a flat subsidised cost that would not discourage the process. LPG cylinders are also produced locally, thus cutting any additional importation costs. While electrical cooking equipment is made locally, the production capacity is minimal and will not meet the demand of the suggested regulations. An increased public-private investment, especially with the inclusion of key players in the energy sector, would help the industry leapfrog to produce enough equipment to meet the demand. The Kenyan State Department for Industry has nine industry priority areas, and the local production of electrical equipment is conspicuously missing despite the department’s continuous calls to promote efficient production and energy use in the country. This is an opportunity that needs to be taken into consideration.

The Kenyan government, through its ministries, should take responsibility for creating an environment that encourages the uptake of clean cooking energy. There will be cases of compromises during the implementation period, but further delay would make the issue more complicated and expensive. The Kenyan population is on a steady growth, which would equivalently increase its wood fuel use. The current increase in energy security, urbanisation, and industrial development offers an opportunity to integrate and scale up clean cooking options. A strategic approach can also turn the process into an investment opportunity, mainly if the government uses local resources and skills to transition from wood fuel to clean energy. Wood fuel should be systematically removed from the economic value chain and not be immediately banned. The areas with high access to alternatives should be incentivised and supported to transition first, and the process would then be expanded based on the availability of resources and skills to support the process.

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