Kenya’s cooling challenges and opportunities

This report outlines the critical cooling and cold chain needs in Kenya across the agriculture, health, and built environment sectors. It identifies significant food losses, electricity gaps in health facilities, and urban heat risks, while highlighting opportunities for sustainable cooling investments and passive design to improve public health and economic productivity.

• Kenya faces substantial agricultural losses due to inadequate cold chain infrastructure, with 40 percent of produce lost annually. This contributes to food insecurity affecting approximately 25 percent of the population. While the cold chain market is projected to reach USD 2.1 billion by 2030, current infrastructure is fragmented and primarily serves high-value exports, leaving local produce in regions like Homa Bay, Kiambu, and Turkana vulnerable.
• The expansion of vaccine cold chains in Kenya is hindered by unreliable electricity at public health facilities; electricity access at government-operated facilities only rose from 69 percent in 2016 to 70 percent in 2021. To combat this, the Ministry of Health aims to equip all facilities with optimal Cold Chain Equipment by 2026, having already deployed 8,342 refrigerators, including some solar-direct drive units.
• Urban heat and poor building design pose significant health and education risks in Kenya. In Mombasa, temperatures can be 6°C higher than surrounding areas due to the urban heat island effect, and in Nairobi's Kibera settlement, poor housing construction increases heat risks. Overheating is also prevalent in schools due to iron sheet roofing. Passive cooling measures, such as green roofs and reflective paint, have demonstrated the ability to reduce building temperatures from 48.64°C to 31.85°C in Kiambu.
• Kenya's cooling appliance market is dominated by inefficiency, with 90 percent of available air conditioners being low-efficiency models. This increases costs for consumers and puts stress on power grids. Additionally, emerging industrial needs for cooling include approximately 13 data centres and planned nuclear power plants in Kilifi and Kwale.

APA

Sustainable Energy for All (n.d.). Kenya’s cooling challenges and opportunities. https://www.seforall.org/kenyas-cooling-challenges-and-opportunities

Chicago

Sustainable Energy for All. Kenya’s cooling challenges and opportunities. n.d. https://www.seforall.org/kenyas-cooling-challenges-and-opportunities.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Sustainable Energy for All |title=Kenya’s cooling challenges and opportunities |url=https://www.seforall.org/kenyas-cooling-challenges-and-opportunities |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sustainableenergyforallndkenyas, author = {{Sustainable Energy for All}}, title = {{Kenya’s cooling challenges and opportunities}}, institution = {Sustainable Energy for All}, url = {https://www.seforall.org/kenyas-cooling-challenges-and-opportunities}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }