From firewood to clean cooking: exploring the adoption of clean cooking practices in Kakuma Refugee Camp

Refugee households in Kakuma Refugee Camp primarily rely on firewood and charcoal for cooking, despite the severe risks these traditional fuels pose to personal safety, environmental sustainability, and health. In this working paper, Yuhana Luka Nabashti explores why the uptake of cleaner, safer energy alternatives—such as solar cookers, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), and electric pressure cookers—remains slow despite efforts by humanitarian organisations to promote them. By examining the economic barriers, infrastructure limitations, safety concerns, and cultural preferences that drive fuel choices, the paper recommends that UNHCR, the Government of Kenya, and humanitarian agencies expand solar power infrastructure, subsidise clean cooking technologies, and introduce energy tokens to enable affordable, sustainable energy adoption across the camp.