OPINION: How biofuels can boost Kenya’s clean cooking push

By Purity Ndereba and Ally Jamah

Kenya's ambition for clean cooking for all by 2030 depends on more than getting cleaner stoves into homes and institutions. Ensuring an adequate and reliable supply of sustainable fuels is equally critical.

Government figures show that only a third of Kenyan households use clean cooking solutions, while an estimated 26,000 people die each year from household air pollution. Women and children are particularly affected by exposure to smoke from polluting cooking fuels and by the time spent collecting firewood.

Continued dependence on unsustainably sourced firewood and charcoal also puts pressure on Kenya’s forests and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, adding to the country’s climate challenge.

The Kenya National Cooking Transition Strategy (KNCTS) envisages a mix of electricity, LPG, bioethanol, biogas and cleaner biomass fuels such as briquettes and pellets. Biofuels could account for about 40 per cent of this clean cooking mix.

The country already produces many of the crops and residues that could supply biofuels. Cassava, sweet sorghum and sugarcane can provide feedstock for bioethanol. Oilseed crops such as castor can be processed into biodiesel.

Crop residues can be made into briquettes and pellets, while livestock manure and other organic material can be used for biogas. The challenge is developing supply chains that can deliver fuel consistently at prices that make sense for farmers, processors and consumers.

Past experience gives farmers reason to be cautious. Jatropha and castor were previously promoted for biodiesel in parts of Kenya, but reliable buyers and processing facilities did not develop alongside production. Some farmers were left with crops they could not readily sell. That history matters because some of the same weaknesses remain.

A recent study examined biofuel supply chains in Kilifi, Nakuru, Kajiado, Nairobi and Kisumu counties. It was conducted by Practical Action, Gamos East Africa and the Clean Cooking Association of Kenya, in partnership with the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, as part of a UK PACT-funded initiative to strengthen clean cooking supply chains. The study found weak links between farmers, processors and other market actors.

Smallholders already produce many of these crops, but most are grown for food, animal feed or existing markets. Farmers have little incentive to produce specifically for energy without clear buyers and workable prices. Cultivation remains small-scale and scattered, and is heavily exposed to drought and erratic rainfall.

Processors therefore struggle to secure enough feedstock, in the volumes and quality needed for reliable production. Small and scattered production makes it difficult to assemble sufficient quantities, while poor post-harvest handling affects quality. Markets are also largely informal, with farmers often selling through traders and brokers rather than directly to processors. Weak aggregation, limited market information and transport costs further reduce farmers’ returns.

Increasing production alone would not solve these problems. In Kilifi, for example, we are working with Giraffe Bioenergy and the Marafa and Magarini cooperatives to facilitate a cassava outgrower model that helps farmers improve production, meet quality requirements and aggregate harvests to match the company’s needs. This should make it easier for the company to source sufficient volumes while giving farmers a clearer route to market.

Beyond the outgrower arrangements, we are working with farmers and businesses to improve production and business skills, and access finance. We are also working with government and industry on the policies and coordination needed for these markets to function, while exploring demand from schools, hospitals and commercial kitchens that could provide more predictable markets for locally produced fuels. This work is part of a UK Government-supported initiative to strengthen clean cooking supply chains across the five counties.

The approach is showing encouraging early signs, with potential to be adapted and expanded elsewhere in Kenya. What works will depend on local conditions and the feedstocks available. Kilifi has strong potential around cassava as well as coconut and cashew residues. Kisumu has sugarcane by-products, rice residues and other biomass waste.

Nakuru has maize residues and livestock manure. Kajiado’s water scarcity makes dedicated crop production more difficult, increasing the relevance of manure, organic waste and suitable dryland crops. Nairobi has limited agricultural land but plays an important role in processing, distribution and demand.

However, enthusiasm must be balanced with caution. Energy crops should not undermine food security or encourage conversion of productive food-growing land into monoculture plantations. Their expansion must be guided by science, environmental safeguards and local land-use planning. Ultimately, energy crops should not be viewed as a replacement for Kenya's broader renewable energy ambitions, but as one important component of an inclusive clean cooking ecosystem.

Purity Ndereba and Ally Jamah work for Practical Action in Kenya. Email: purity.ndereba@practicalaction.or.ke