This archive report was first published on 17 November 2019.
Kenya's ambitious goal of achieving 100% access to modern cooking solutions by 2030 seems far-fetched, given the country's reliance on traditional cooking methods.
According to the Kenya Cooking Sector Report, a staggering 58% of the population uses the traditional three-stone open firewood cooking method, while 70% of households rely on some type of woodstove as their primary or secondary cookstove.
Notably, 92% of these users live in rural areas, where the three-stone method remains the preferred choice, with 28.6% of rural residents opting for it despite its association with low efficiency rates and health risks.
As a result, 64.7% of households in Kenya use wood as their primary cooking fuel, exposing them to harmful pollutants that cause respiratory and heart diseases, lung cancer, and eye irritation.
Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Ministry of Energy Charles Keter revealed that this exposure results in approximately 21,560 deaths annually, surpassing the average number of deaths caused by road accidents.
The Kenya Cooking Sector Study also found that despite the ban on charcoal use, the average charcoal consumption among households is 395kg per year, with an annual market value of Ksh68 billion ($680 million).
On a positive note, the number of households using LPG gas increased sixfold between 1999 and 2018, from approximately 0.6 million to 3.7 million.
However, this progress is overshadowed by the fact that only 3% of households own an electric cooking appliance, largely due to the high cost of stoves and electricity.
Furthermore, kerosene use remains prevalent in urban low-income areas, with 1.7 million households relying on it, while alternative cooking technologies like ethanol stoves and biogas are used by less than 1% of households.
As the country struggles to meet its clean energy targets, a private firm, Consumer Choice Ltd, has partnered with the government of Tanzania to phase out charcoal use in Dar es Salaam, distributing biofuel-run stoves to 500,000 middle-income households.
