By Samwel Oyugi Oriwo
In many Kenyan households, cooking is more than a daily chore, it’s a cultural ritual and a vital part of family life. But behind every warm meal lies a serious issue: traditional cooking methods, such as open fires and basic charcoal stoves, contribute heavily to indoor air pollution, deforestation, and adverse health effects, particularly for women and children. To address these environmental and public health challenges, Kenya’s clean cooking movement has gained momentum, bringing with it not only cleaner energy solutions but also new opportunities for green job creation.
A cookstove is a heat retention device essential for cooking and boiling in both household and commercial settings. However, a recent mapping of Kenya’s clean energy ecosystem, commissioned by the Green and Digital Innovation Hub (gDIH), found that the existing cookstove value chain had gaps in addressing clean energy standards, with most stoves being inefficient and non-compliant with international benchmarks. This exposed the urgent need to support local innovators in testing, standardizing, and improving their cookstove technologies.
Recently, a detailed value chain mapping exercise was conducted by gDIH in Murang’a and Nyeri counties, Kenya. The goal was to assess the entire production process of ceramic cookstoves and identify opportunities to support innovators in standardizing their products through ‘test before invest’ component as one of the gDIH services tailored to support innovators in promoting clean energy. The study also sought to highlight how strengthening this value chain could unlock new green employment opportunities and contribute to Kenya’s sustainable development ambitions.
Why Ceramic Cookstoves Matter
Unlike open fires or basic metal stoves, ceramic cookstoves use clay liners that retain heat efficiently, reduce fuel consumption, and lower harmful emissions. They are affordable for households reliant on firewood and charcoal, yet challenges persist in the production process. The study found inefficiencies in material sourcing, clay mining practices, stove assembly, and market access, all of which hinder both environmental outcomes and the creation of reliable, decent green jobs.
Green jobs in this context are those that help improve the environment, reduce carbon emissions, and promote sustainable livelihoods. In the ceramic cookstove value chain, these jobs span clay miners, stove fabricators, kiln operators, transporters, marketers, and maintenance technicians, offering employment especially to women and youth in rural and peri-urban areas.
From Clay to Kitchen: Mapping the Value Chain
The value chain analysis mapped every step in the cookstove’s lifecycle, from clay mining and liner production to assembly, marketing, and end-use. Key insights revealed: Clay mining is labor-intensive and poorly remunerated, with women earning as little as KES 10 per day and men up to KES 500, often in unsafe working conditions, stove liners frequently suffer from low durability and inconsistent quality due to manual mixing processes and outdated kiln technologies, marketing efforts remain highly localized, preventing producers from scaling their businesses and creating more sustainable, green employment. These findings illuminated both the environmental risks and untapped opportunities for creating dignified green jobs within the cookstove value chain.
Liner Production Process Flow
The traditional liner production process involves several manual steps: Sorting out foreign particles from clay-Soaking the clay to soften it-mixing with sand-molding using simple wooden paddle molds-finishing and curing-firing in traditional kilns.
While these activities offer income to local artisans, most of them work informally and face barriers like poor working conditions, lack of safety equipment, and unpredictable markets, challenges that, if addressed, could transform these roles into formalized green jobs contributing directly to Kenya’s clean energy transition.
Opportunities for Innovation and Green Employment
The report outlined several innovation areas that, if developed, could improve both cookstove efficiency and the livelihoods connected to their production: Incorporating lightweight, eco-friendly materials such as rice husks and sawdust to improve stove efficiency and reduce the amount of clay required, adopting mechanical mixers and alternative fuels for kilns (like briquettes and macadamia shells) to lower emissions and improve product consistency, expanding marketing channels via digital platforms and clean energy fairs to grow demand, opening up new entrepreneurial opportunities for rural artisans, tapping into carbon credit markets, where ceramic cookstove producers could earn income from the carbon emissions avoided through the use of efficient stoves. Each of these innovations carries the potential to formalize and multiply green job opportunities, from eco-material suppliers and clean kiln operators to digital marketers and carbon credit traders.
Training, Support, and Policy Backing
To realize this vision, the gDIH have designed tailored training programs for artisans and entrepreneurs in the cookstove value chain. These cover safe and sustainable clay mining, efficient stove design, proper kiln management, and digital marketing skills. This capacity-building initiative aims to professionalize the sector, improve working conditions, and increase the number of decent, well-supported green jobs available to local communities.
Additionally, the “Test-before-Invest” component, a core pillar of gDIH services, has been introduced to support over 100 clean cookstove innovators in obtaining certification for their designs. This enhances consumer confidence, improves market access, and ensures the creation of quality-driven, sustainable employment.
Policy engagement at both national and county levels is also underway, aimed at accelerating the adoption of clean cooking technologies and integrating green jobs creation strategies into energy access policies. This aligns with Kenya’s national goal of achieving 100% clean cooking access by 2028.
A Clean Cooking and Green Jobs Future Within Reach
The clean cookstove sector represents more than an environmental intervention; it’s a pathway for inclusive, sustainable economic growth. By investing in product innovation, artisan training, and market expansion, Murang’a and Nyeri counties could evolve into thriving hubs of clean energy solutions, offering a range of green employment opportunities from raw material harvesting and stove fabrication to carbon trading and digital marketing.
As noted in the study, many innovators expressed keen interest in exploring carbon markets to boost their incomes, while others called for support in developing lighter, more efficient cookstoves. Addressing these needs not only improves environmental outcomes but also ensures that the transition to clean cooking is socially inclusive and economically beneficial for local communities.
