First Lady Rachel Ruto has called for urgent investment and financing to accelerate Kenya’s transition from traditional firewood use to clean cooking technologies in schools, correctional facilities, and other public institutions.
Speaking in Nairobi at the opening of a two-day High-Level Summit on Unlocking Finance and Investment for Institutional Clean Cooking, Mrs. Ruto said that most institutional meals in Kenya are still prepared using biomass fuels, primarily firewood, posing grave risks to health, forests, and the climate.
“Most institutional meals in schools and correctional facilities are still prepared using firewood,” she said. “This has caused devastating effects on the health of our people, our forests, and on the climate.”Despite the persistent challenges, she noted that Kenya has made measurable progress. Access to clean cooking has risen from about 10 percent in 2013 to over 30 percent in 2023, signaling momentum that could be scaled through public-private partnerships.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, however, the picture remains bleak. Roughly four in five households still lack access to clean cooking fuels and technologies, with only 23 percent of the region’s population benefiting from modern options. The toll, she emphasized, is severe, especially for women and children.
“Hundreds of thousands of Africans suffer or die prematurely every year from household air pollution,” the first lady noted. “We must finance clean cooking not as an afterthought, but as an act of faith in Kenya’s future.
