Bringing clean, safe, affordable cooking energy to Kenyan households: an agenda for action

This policy brief by the Stockholm Environment Institute examines the public health, economic, and environmental impacts of traditional biomass cooking in Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa. It advocates for a transition to clean cookstoves through private-sector support, regulatory reform of the charcoal sector, and the removal of market barriers such as high import duties.

• In Kenya, 76% of the population (approximately 35 million people) relies on traditional biomass for cooking. This dependence is linked to significant public health issues, including an estimated 15,000 premature deaths annually due to indoor air pollution.
• The economic burden of solid-fuel dependence in sub-Saharan Africa is severe. In a worst-case scenario, combined health, economic, and environmental impacts are nearly US$60 billion per year, with economic costs alone reaching US$36.9 billion (2.8% of GDP), of which US$29.6 billion is attributed to time wastage.
• Kenya is a regional leader in clean cookstove distribution, but large-scale market transformation requires the government to remove barriers for private-sector actors. Current obstacles include a 25% import duty on cookstoves which, combined with VAT and railroad tax, increases stove costs by approximately 47%.
• The charcoal sector in Kenya is a significant economic driver, employing an estimated 700,000 people and valued at 135 billion KSH (about US$1.3 billion). However, it remains largely unregulated or banned, which prevents sustainable production and keeps market prices artificially low.
• Successful cookstove initiatives avoid a "one size fits all" approach and instead focus on four key factors: stove quality and features (efficiency and user-centric design), access to finance for both enterprises and end-users, an enabling regulatory environment, and a fully commercial approach to ensure long-term sustainability.
• The document recommends that governments in sub-Saharan Africa reframe energy policies to recognize the economic value of biomass, remove taxes on imported clean technologies, and target subsidies upstream (R&D and manufacture) rather than downstream to the end-user.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2016). Bringing clean, safe, affordable cooking energy to Kenyan households: an agenda for action. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-NCE-DB-2016-Kenya-Clean-Cooking.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Bringing clean, safe, affordable cooking energy to Kenyan households: an agenda for action. 2016. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-NCE-DB-2016-Kenya-Clean-Cooking.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Bringing clean, safe, affordable cooking energy to Kenyan households: an agenda for action |date=2016 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-NCE-DB-2016-Kenya-Clean-Cooking.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2016bringing, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Bringing clean, safe, affordable cooking energy to Kenyan households: an agenda for action}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2016}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-NCE-DB-2016-Kenya-Clean-Cooking.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }