Kenya’s eCooking Future: Why Household Electric Appliance Quality Infrastructure Matters

Date: 26th February 2025

Categories: Appliance Quality

By Anne Wacera Wambugu and Betsy Muriithi

Kenya is a global leader in renewable energy – over 85% of its grid power comes from clean sources, and more than three quarters of Kenyans have access to electricity. Yet electricity powers less than 4% of cooking, with most households relying on bioenergy or LPG. The government aims to change this by setting 2028 as the target for universal clean cooking. As part of this effort, Kenya’s Ministry of Energy has developed the Kenya National eCooking Strategy (KNeCS)¹.

A crucial piece of the puzzle? Quality. The reliability and safety of electric cooking (eCooking) appliances are essential if households are to adopt electricity for daily cooking. Quality matters because:

If appliances break or cause safety hazards, households lose confidence in eCooking solutions.
Shifting to electric cooking can reduce indoor air pollution and deforestation—but only if devices work well and last (value for money and less e-waste).
Quality standards encourage innovation and investment, leading to better products at competitive prices.

However, the ecosystem for efficiency and quality assessment for eCooking appliances in Kenya is still in its infancy. To make robust recommendations on eCooking efficiency and quality assessment, we look at the larger ecosystem of household electric appliances and identify weaknesses in import checks, quality standards, consumer awareness, or repair services that can undermine eCooking devices. By examining the entire electric appliance quality ecosystem, we gain a complete picture of how electric appliances move from factory to household, where quality lapses occur, and how best to address them. We then provide recommendations to pave the way for reliable, clean, and efficient eCooking solutions.

Kenya’s Electric Appliance Quality Infrastructure: A Tale of Two Systems

The journey of getting a high-quality electric appliance from the factory to the household is complex, involving a network of importers, regulators, and retailers. The network of importers, regulators, retailers, and consumers, all work (ideally) under a coordinated framework termed as a Quality Infrastructure (QI) that ensures products meet safety and performance standards.

QI encompasses everything from metrology (measurement standards) and standardization to accreditation, conformity assessment, and market surveillance. This includes:

Developing standards and benchmarks so products meet safety, performance, and environmental requirements.
Testing and certification schemes that ensure goods (often imported) are rigorously inspected and verified before hitting the market.
Market surveillance done by checking that products in stores actually meet legal and safety requirements.

Kenya has several key QI-related laws like the Standards Act, Weights and Measures Act, and Kenya Accreditation Service Act and institutions such as the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and Kenya Accreditation Service (KENAS) that oversee and enforce these frameworks. There are also consumer-oriented measures (e.g., quality marks, verification apps) that aim to help buyers identify and trust compliant products. In principle, this quality infrastructure should guarantee both safety and performance.

While the intended structure of the quality ecosystem appears robust on paper, as discussed in the Electric Appliance Quality Ecosystem: A Scoping Report for the Kenyan Market report² the reality is quite different. Our evidence, drawn from stakeholder interviews, workshops, and a household survey, found a disconnect between how the quality ecosystem is designed and how it operates on the ground across key segments.

The full report pulls back the curtain on Kenya’s electric appliance quality infrastructure—revealing the gaps, real-world challenges, and tangible solutions. We summarise some key findings comparing the reality and the ideal for each sector below.

	IDEAL	REALITY
Import	Kenya to boast stringent import controls with pre-shipment inspections and conformity checks.	The reality is that defective and counterfeit products often slip through the cracks due to inadequate testing and corruption.
Market	Ideally, consumers should be well informed about quality marks and utilize them to make informed purchasing decisions.	In reality, limited consumer awareness and inconsistent validation processes hinder the verification of product authenticity.
Ownership	A well-functioning repair ecosystem is crucial for the longevity of appliances.	Unfortunately, the actual repair system is fragmented, lacking adequate support for local repair technicians, leaving consumers with limited options for repairs.
Government	The intended framework emphasizes coordinated efforts among government entities to ensure consumer protection.	In reality, a lack of coordination hinders effective enforcement of quality standards, leaving consumers vulnerable.

A Spotlight on the Quality Mark Situation

Quality marks are crucial tools for consumers to identify safe and reliable appliances. These marks, offered by government agencies like the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and voluntary schemes like Verasol, are meant to guarantee product quality and consumer protection.

**Figure 2**: Displays one of the ways in which consumers can verify the quality of products using the KEBS quality marks (standardization mark, import standardization mark or diamond mark) found on most household products. The ‘Wajibika na KEBS’ allows consumers to conduct self-verification by either scanning the KEBS sticker via an app or sending the permit number or serial number via USSD to 20023.

In Kenya, the primary and mandatory quality mark is provided by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS). KEBS quality marks are used for both locally manufactured and imported products, to ensure compliance with safety and performance standards. However, consumers face challenges verifying the authenticity of these marks. The absence of sector-specific marks also prevents the inclusion of technical specifications of electric appliances in the marks. This is a huge oversight as technical specifications are the metric with which electric systems are measured.

**Figure 3**: Sample of the results from using the KEBS 20023 SMS verification service on a variety of household goods. The full results are available in the report, but the snapshot provided here highlights inconsistencies in the KEBS self-service verification processes especially for electronic appliances. This creates a challenge for consumers seeking a dependable way to verify quality.

Verasol, a voluntary certification scheme, complements KEBS by offering testing and certification for niche and new-to-market products that may lack established international standards or are early in the market. However, its reach is limited as it primarily serves development sector actors, to whom it provides a valuable service by ensuring that their investments are directed towards quality products. This limited public awareness is acceptable, as the KEBS mark covers end users, and should suffice with some improvements.

Bridging the Gap

To enhance Kenya’s electric appliance quality ecosystem, collaborative efforts are needed as follows:

Quality Marks:

Develop a dedicated quality mark specifically for electric appliances to provide clear information to consumers.
Improve the verification process, through QR codes on product labels, for easy verification and access to product information.
Establish feedback mechanisms for consumers to report questionable quality marks, ensuring accountability and trust.

Testing and Consumer Protection:

Invest in local testing facilities to ensure appliances meet quality and safety standards.
Strengthen consumer protection laws and enforcement to hold manufacturers accountable.
Educate consumers about their rights to empower them to demand better quality.

Repair and Manufacturing:

Support the informal repair sector to enhance appliance longevity and reduce waste.
Encourage manufacturers to prioritize quality over profit, building trust and contributing to a sustainable future.

Electric Appliance Quality Ecosystem report can be accessed via this link.

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Footnotes:

¹MoEP, ‘Kenya National Electric Cooking Strategy,’ Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, 2024. Available at

²Wambugu, A., Muriithi, B., Da Silva, I., Njogo, A., & Muchiri, V. (2024). Electric Appliance Quality Ecosystem: A Scoping Report for the Kenyan Market (F. Musonye, H. Njoroge, & N. Bukachi, Eds.). MECS.