Kenya Clean Cooking Week blog series, Day 4: Partners working towards achieving Universal Access to Clean Cooking by 2028

By Syprose Ochieng (Gamos East Africa), Beryl Onjala (Gamos East Africa), Dr Jon Leary (Gamos East Africa), Dr Faith Wandera-Odongo (Ministry of Energy and Petroleum),Philomena Mitalo (Clean Cooking Association of Kenya), Brian Murumba (Clean Cooking Association of Kenya)

This is the fourth blog post of a five-part blog series focusing on four virtual webinars held during the 3rd Clean Cooking Week co-hosted by Clean Cooking Association Kenya (CCAK) and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum (MoEP) at Panari Hotel Nairobi from 28^th November to 2^nd December 2022. We had a line-up of four webinars that continued the discussions on energy access and the role different partners play within their various energy programmes to enhance energy access.

1st Webinar: Accelerating Access to Clean Energy within the Agriculture Setup

The session started with a presentation by Paul Ayalo, the Senior Project Officer at Fairtrade Africa, who discussed accelerating access to clean energy within the agriculture setup.  In his presentation, he highlighted the case of clean energy access within the flower, tea, coffee, and other products in Kenya and shared with the participants the impact stories from their current project “Kenya Roses project” and relevant stories of change from other products and projects. Paul emphasized that Fairtrade Africa was keen on building resilience within the producer network and that their strategy focuses on addressing the means to ensure that producers have a sustainable system to address the effects of climate change among other things.

2nd Webinar: Energy Access Explorer

Energy Access Explorer (EAE) Discussions for this session were led by Ms Lindsay Umalla, Senior Manager, Market Strengthening Clean Cooking Alliance, and Dr Dimitrius Mentis, Lead, Energy Access Explorer, World Resources Institute. EAE platform was launched in 2019 in Kampala, Uganda, and has more than 50 geospatial data already incorporated. EAE contributes to the SETA program and capacity-building activities specifically in three County Energy Plans (Kitui, Narok, and Makueni). The platform has been incorporating the least-cost electrification modelling using the Open-Source Spatial Electrification Tool (OnSSET).

According to Dr Mentis, the World Resources Institute needs access to data and analytical tools which capture key parameters of the unserved and underserved to expand access to clean cooking and clean energy services. By the end of the session, participants were able to learn more about the EAE geospatial tool that incorporates and analyzes the geospatial datasets linked to both the possible demand and supply of clean cooking services and allows data-driven planning, organization, and decision-making. This tool is now accessible online for free to everyone.

3rd Webinar: Transforming Clean Cooking Response in Displacement Settings

This session was presented by Ms Karlijn Groen (Energy Project Advisor), SNV Kenya, Ms Maryanne Wanjiru (Access to Finance Advisor), SNV Kenya, Ms Ruth Kimani (Senior Associate Clean Energy Access), CLASP, and Ms Mercy Kanini Mutavi  (Energy & Environment) and UNHCR. This session presented learnings from the Case study on the use of Electric Pressure Cookers (EPCs) with refugee and host community households and SMEs connected to the solar mini-grid in Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement, Kenya. The case study involved testing the use of Electric Pressure Cookers (EPCs) with 100 refugee and host community householdsand businesses in Kalobeyei through a market-based approach.

The study findings indicate that most EPC users are satisfied with the EPC which is primarily attributed to faster cooking time, and it is a clean source of fuel, cooking convenience, cost savings, and reduced smoke were mentioned as primary drivers of uptake. Most EPC users reduced the use of charcoal and firewood for cooking fuel savings reflected 200KES/1,60EUR cost savings per week. However, some of the user surveys indicated that they would have preferred a larger EPC pot and a spare pot for cooking. The community also identified the lack of access to finance and the high price of EPC as the main hindrance.

4th Webinar: Renewable Energy Sector Advocacy

This session on renewable energy sector advocacy work was presented by Mr Andrew Amadi, the Chief Executive Officer at Kenya Renewable Energy Association (KEREA). In rural parts of Kenya, firewood is still the primary fuel for over 84% of households, followed by charcoal at 9%, and LPG at 6%. However, in urban Kenya, The proportion of households using LPG is the highest (42%), followed by firewood (21%), charcoal (17%), and kerosene (16%). Therefore, KEREA saw an opportunity to offer training and spread knowledge to create awareness among people, and the various policy and decision-making entities.

Mr Amadi highlighted some of the issues prioritized in KEREA’s strategic plan for action in the next 4-5 years. These include advocacy-political regulatory framework, access to finance, and access to markets. Additionally, he shared with the participants the achievements on clean cooking appliances import duty and VAT exemption. In his response to how KEREA could be supported to get VAT exemptions for electric pressure cookers, he highlighted the requirement for data that can be used to do some indexing to show the price of cooking. Researchers could provide and package data in a way that the government can understand and note the benefit to help strengthen the case for exemption on ecooking appliances.

In conclusion, these four sessions allowed participants to understand what various partners were working on to support the acceleration of Clean Cooking in Kenya. The need for a multisector development approach that would include working with national and sub-national governments, the private sector, financial institutions, and development partners, was discussed. This was also highlighted by CCAK Chairman, Mr Jechoniah Kitala, during the opening session of the Clean Cooking week when he emphasized the need to address the underlying systematic constraints in the adoption of Clean Cooking, by encouraging a multi-actor sector development approach which allows national, sub-national governments, financial institutions, private sector, and development partners to be involved in the process. 

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Featured Image: Clean Cooking week webinar by Endev, SNV, and CLASP from their Case study on Piloting Electric Cookers in Kalobeyei integrated settlement. Image credits Endev, SNV, and CLASP.