Firewood access and use in Kenya

This technical brief from the Stockholm Environment Institute examines the critical role of firewood as a primary energy source in Kenya, highlighting the challenges of supply-demand imbalances, gender inequality, and knowledge gaps. It advocates for a multi-sectoral integrated approach to ensure sustainable firewood access and utilization.

• Firewood is the primary energy source for cooking and heating for nearly all rural households in Kenya. A 2005/2006 survey estimated that 68.3% of all households nationwide rely on firewood as their main cooking fuel.
• Rather than switching to a single fuel as income increases, Kenyan households often engage in "fuel stacking," using combinations of fuels such as kerosene, charcoal, and LPG to meet daily needs.
• Firewood is used extensively by bulk users, including prisons, learning institutions, and industries. In the tea industry, more than 70% of small-scale factories utilize boilers capable of using firewood to lower production costs.
• Kenya faces a significant biomass supply deficit, which was 57.2% in 2002 and was projected to reach 63.4% by 2015. This imbalance leads to illegal harvesting in 'gazetted' forests and the exploitation of vulnerable dryland ecosystems.
• Firewood collection disproportionately burdens women and children, who may spend at least one day per week traveling long distances. This results in physical risks, such as spinal and head injuries, and causes girls to miss educational opportunities.
• The use of inefficient cookstoves, such as the traditional three-stone fire, in poorly ventilated homes causes household air pollution. This primarily affects women and children and is linked to respiratory diseases.
• The document identifies critical knowledge gaps for different stakeholders: farmers need guidance on farm planning and tree species; researchers need to map multipurpose tree species and involve users in technology development; and policy makers require scalable data and better enforcement of bioenergy regulations.
• The authors recommend a multi-sectoral integrated approach led by county governments. Proposed actions include developing woodfuel plantations, adopting agroforestry, improving forest management, and developing efficient cookstoves and biomass technologies like gasification and briquetting.

APA

Nyambane, A., Njenga, M., Oballa, P., Mugo, P., Ochieng, C., Johnson, O., & Iiyama, M. (2014). Firewood access and use in Kenya. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/ICRAF-SEI-2014-techbrief-Sustainable-firewood.pdf

Chicago

Nyambane, Anne, Mary Njenga, Phanuel Oballa, Peris Mugo, Caroline Ochieng, Oliver Johnson, and Miyuki Iiyama. Firewood access and use in Kenya. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2014. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/ICRAF-SEI-2014-techbrief-Sustainable-firewood.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Nyambane |first1=Anne |last2=Njenga |first2=Mary |last3=Oballa |first3=Phanuel |last4=Mugo |first4=Peris |last5=Ochieng |first5=Caroline |last6=Johnson |first6=Oliver |last7=Iiyama |first7=Miyuki |title=Firewood access and use in Kenya |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=May 2014 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/ICRAF-SEI-2014-techbrief-Sustainable-firewood.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{nyambane2014firewood, author = {Nyambane, Anne and Njenga, Mary and Oballa, Phanuel and Mugo, Peris and Ochieng, Caroline and Johnson, Oliver and Iiyama, Miyuki}, title = {{Firewood access and use in Kenya}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2014}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/ICRAF-SEI-2014-techbrief-Sustainable-firewood.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }