BEYOND FIRE

This report by the Stockholm Environment Institute describes a participatory backcasting exercise conducted with a rural off-grid community in Machakos County, Kenya. The study aimed to co-develop a transition pathway to achieve 100% electric cooking by 2030, exploring the behavioral, cultural, and infrastructural changes required from the perspective of rural households.

• Participants associate 100% electric cooking with broader development goals and modernity, imagining that electrification would enable access to clinics, improved education with computers in schools, street lighting for security, and enhanced agricultural activities such as cold storage and heat lamps for hatcheries.
• The transition to electric cooking is expected to significantly reduce the domestic burden on women, who currently spend 4–6 hours per week gathering fuelwood. This shift is envisioned to reduce family stress, allow men and children to assist more with cooking, and create new income opportunities for women through the sale of home-produced snacks and cakes.
• Electric cooking is predicted to improve food security and health by enabling households to eat three meals a day instead of two, providing access to a wider variety of foods (such as pasta and noodles), and reducing respiratory ailments and burns associated with three-stone fires and charcoal stoves.
• Participants envision a 'modern kitchen' as a prerequisite for electric cooking, characterized by being part of the main living area rather than a separate structure, featuring tiled floors, ventilation with extractor fans, and a range of appliances including refrigerators, kettles, and microwaves.
• The proposed transition pathway follows a gradual 'stacking' model rather than an immediate switch. The sequence involves moving from fuelwood on three-stone fires to improved stoves (jikokoa) between 2020–2024, then incorporating LPG and kerosene between 2024–2027, and finally reaching primary electricity use by 2030, while retaining some traditional stoves as backups.
• Community-led drivers are seen as more powerful than government or NGO interventions. Key enabling factors include the role of 'early adopters' (elders and village leaders) as catalysts, and the use of local financial mechanisms like 'merry-go-rounds' and 'table banking' to fund appliances and connections.
• The transition requires specific government support, particularly the renewal and extension of the Last Mile Connectivity Project (LMCP) to assist low-income households with grid connections, and the improvement of rural road infrastructure to facilitate grid extension.
• The first phase of the transition (2020–2024) is identified as a period of preparation focusing on civic education and community sensitization to ensure the election of effective leaders and to build the capacity to demand basic services from the government.

APA

Lambe, F., Nyambane, A., & Bailis, R. (2020). BEYOND FIRE. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/hivos-electric-cooking-final.pdf

Chicago

Lambe, Fiona, Anne Nyambane, and Rob Bailis. BEYOND FIRE. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2020. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/hivos-electric-cooking-final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lambe |first1=Fiona |last2=Nyambane |first2=Anne |last3=Bailis |first3=Rob |title=BEYOND FIRE |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2 June 2020 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/hivos-electric-cooking-final.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lambe2020beyond, author = {Lambe, Fiona and Nyambane, Anne and Bailis, Rob}, title = {{BEYOND FIRE}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/hivos-electric-cooking-final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }