The grassroots economy fuelling women’s wellbeing in Kenya

Women in Kenya face serious long-term health risks from cooking with firewood, kerosene, and charcoal. An emerging method of microfinance is improving access to cleaner energy and health outcomes. 

Energy poverty is a most pressing issue in Kenya. Women are disproportionately affected due to the gendered nature of cooking. Photo: Joyce Chimbi

Agnes Nora Kamau grew up in Kinale village near Kenya’s Kijabe Forest, an area home to rich biodiversity just outside the capital Nairobi. She remembers spending many hours each day cooking in a smoke-choked kitchen with her mother and sisters. Energy options were limited to firewood and, for more affluent families in the village, stoves heated by kerosene and charcoal.

“Women and young girls would leave a log of firewood burning overnight to help start a fire in the morning; or carry [kindling] to the neighbour’s house to borrow fire. There was no money to even buy a matchbox,” says the 45-year-old mother of three.

Kamau continued cooking with kerosene and charcoal even after moving in search of a better life to Nairobi’s Mathare area, an informal settlement, in 2002. Even then she could not afford the KSh5,000 (US$38) needed to purchase a 6kg gas cylinder and refill.

“Women in my family, and even in the village at large, had various chronic respiratory problems like prolonged coughing and difficulties in breathing,” Kamau says, explaining that asthma and pneumonia were common in the household.

“There was a lot of sneezing and coughing. We did not know that prolonged exposure to firewood smoke impacted our health beyond irritating our eyes and nostrils. We used to make frequent visits to Kijabe hospital; I missed school often because of chest pain and coughing.”

Energy poverty—the lack of access to affordable and reliable modern energy sources—is a pressing issue in Kenya. Seven out of the country’s eight major regions suffer from moderate energy poverty, and about 90% of rural households are energy poor.

The flow-on health impacts can be severe. Long-term exposure to smoke from firewood, kerosene, and charcoal significantly increases the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as chronic respiratory conditions, heart disease, stroke, and even certain cancers.

Women and young girls are disproportionately affected due to the gendered nature of cooking in Kenya. Kamau explains that it has long been taboo for men to enter the kitchen—let alone cook food and spend hours exposed to potentially toxic smoke. Crucially, many Kenyan women lack the financial independence to switch to cleaner sources of energy.

Smoke inhalation and chronic disease

Research shows women in Africa spend an average of three to seven hours a day around an open fire preparing food. The level of smoke inhalation is equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes a day, according to a study by the World Health Organization (WHO). Air pollution caused by open fire cooking or traditional stoves results in the death of more than 14,000 people annually in Kenya.

“This is a silent pandemic. We see women presenting with these problems in their 60s and 70s, and the level of lung damage can be such that they require oxygen machines at home.”

Dr Emma Karari, a cardiologist and internal medicine specialist at Essential Cardio Services and lecturer at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Nairobi with 30 years’ experience, says prolonged smoke inhalation from firewood is a known contributor to chronic lung diseases among women in Kenya. The health risks increase with age as exposure accumulates over time.

“This is a silent pandemic. We see women presenting with these problems in their 60s and 70s, and the level of lung damage can be such that they require oxygen machines at home. The smoke pollution is worse if the firewood is not completely dry,” Karari says.

Households are increasingly using wet wood because drying it has become difficult—especially as the government, in efforts to protect and conserve ecosystems, has restricted forest access to communities, impacting their ability of collect firewood.

If left untreated, issues in the lungs can lead to problems in the heart, kidneys, and liver. An estimated 16% of women in Kenya aged 15 to 49 are living with at least one NCD, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, lung disease, and breast and cervical cancer. The most prevalent is hypertension—the leading global risk factor for cardiovascular disease and one that is closely linked to air pollution.

“When women get darker, develop a big gut and swollen feet, it is often dismissed as age-related when these are in fact symptoms of cardiovascular disease. In some cases, it will all have started in the lungs and what you then see is a manifestation of serious internal problems. These issues significantly lower women’s quality of life and become costly to treat,” Karari cautions.

Cleaner sources of energy out of reach

Transitioning from firewood, kerosene, and charcoal to cleaner sources of energy helps improve women’s health and reduce the risk of NCDs. But Mary Chepkwony, co-founder of the Rural Women Peace Link, a grassroots, women-led organisation based in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, explains that while the risks of health complications are ever present and concerning, transitioning to cleaner sources of energy costs money that many women simply do not have, often because men manage family finances. Cooking is considered women’s business and men are not concerned about how food is cooked—they just want it ready on the table.

Due to systemic barriers rooted in patriarchy that have led to decades of economic exclusion, women in Kenya account for 53% of workers in the informal sector. These workers are not protected by national labour laws and typically earn lower wages than those in the formal sector.

Research shows women in Africa spend an average of three to seven hours a day around an open fire. Photo: Joyce Chimbi

In Chepkwony’s case, she managed to instal biogas—a renewable fuel that does not produce smoke—in her home for about KSh30,000 (US$231), but she still needs additional funds to complete the project. Biogas can be produced from cattle manure, but the high cost of feeding and maintaining the animals means it is typically only economically feasible for livestock farmers.

A third of Kenyan households are headed by women, who may in theory be able to more quickly make the decision to transition to cleaner sources of energy for cooking. But Kamau, a single mother, says “it is not that simple” because women continue to trail men when it comes to long-term earning potential.

“My sister dropped out of high school to get married so that her bride price could raise the funds needed for my brothers to go to college. This was very common and normalised back then; so men are still ahead of us economically,” Kamau says.

Financial services empowering women

To address these financial barriers, many Kenyan women are turning to cooperative financial models, known as SACCOs (Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations), that offer financial services with a primary focus on the mobilisation of funds and provision of affordable credit.

These community-driven institutions, owned, managed, and run by members, offer them access to low-interest loans and flexible savings plans, making it possible to invest in cleaner, healthier energy solutions.

Unlike conventional banks, SACCOs operate within a community-focused model that prioritises the welfare of members over profit.

The 5,000 registered SACCOs in Kenya are regulated by the SACCO Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA). Deposit-taking SACCOs, just like banks, offer front office services for deposit or withdrawal, as well as loan services. A non-deposit-taking SACCO allows members to save and use their savings as collateral to take loans.

Unlike conventional banks, SACCOs operate within a community-focused model that prioritises the welfare of members over profit. For many women, they serve as a first point of access to low-interest loans and flexible repayment terms.

Cynthia Chepkoech from the Jokanyanam Women Empowerment SACCO, which has about 560 members, says women-led SACCOs like hers are specifically designed to empower them financially by providing access to loans, savings, and other financial services tailored to their needs. Especially in rural areas, SACCOs help women achieve greater economic independence.

“Our loan services are divided into three: development, emergency, and education. A woman can take a loan under development to, for instance, electrify her house,” Chepkoech explains.

“SACCO loans have very low interest—the lowest among all lending institutions. Women do not require collateral to take a loan, and the repayment period is very friendly as it is up to the women to determine their own repayment period as long as it is no more than 36 months.”

Improving women’s wellbeing

Kamau, a member of Muungano Women SACCO, accessed much-needed funds to buy land and build a house in Kajiado North on the outskirts of Nairobi in 2017. Two years later, she connected the house to the electricity grid—and no longer required kerosene and charcoal for cooking. In 2022, she took a loan from the SACCO for the KSh60,000 (US$461) required to instal a solar system, which has significantly lowered her monthly electricity bills.

“Since I started living in my house, I have not had an asthma attack or breathing problems. My chest is clear, and I do not cough and sneeze all the time as I used to,” she says. “My first-born child had respiratory problems like me. I used to think she grew out of them, but it must be because we only use electricity and solar now.”

Kamau says building her new home and gaining access to cleaner sources of energy would have been impossible without help from the SACCO as she does not qualify for bank loans, which require high capital collateral.

“Since I started living in my house, I have not had an asthma attack or breathing problems. My chest is clear, and I do not cough and sneeze all the time as I used to.”

She has also leveraged low-interest loans from the SACCO to expand her business by selling a variety of fresh fruits in bulk, giving her a higher profit margin. The interest rate on a SACCO loan in Kenya is often lower than 12%; a bank loan can easily be twice that.

“I work six days a week. To deposit the money into my account, I simply move it from my mobile phone wallet to my SACCO account even while [I am] with my customers,” Kamau says.

Kenya’s SACCO sub-sector is the largest in Africa in terms of its membership and asset base, and ranks seventh in the world. County governments in Kenya are increasingly supporting women-led SACCOs by partnering with grassroots women’s organisations. Notable examples include the launch of the Mandera United Women SACCO by the Mandera County government and the Kilifi Women Empowerment Cooperative Society by the Kilifi County government.

SACCOs, including those led by women, are also helping women combat energy poverty and improve long-term health outcomes in other African countries, including neighbouring Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, and further afield in Ghana.

“My story is only one of many; thousands of women are breaking through in finances and health,” Kamau says.