NAIROBI, Kenya – The morning light filters into Alice Siamanta’s home in Nalepo on the outskirts of Nairobi. Her kitchen walls are clean, her pots shine, and free of soot. Her children are busy doing their homework, seated near her. 

The house is quiet. There is no coughing. Siamanta cooks on a stove purchased through her savings in a women’s savings group.

“I never believed cooking could be this easy,” she says, smiling while lifting a pot of simmering beans. “No more tears in my eyes, no black smoke.”

In a neighbouring tin-roofed home in Nalepo, 36-year-old Mary Nasieku used to crouch over a three-stone fire. Smoke curling around her, stinging her eyes as she fanned the flames beneath a pot of maize and beans. The acrid haze clung to her hair, her clothes, and her lungs. 

“My mother cooked like this, my grandmother too,” she said. “We never thought the smoke could kill us.”

Millions of Kenyans are still trapped in smoky kitchens where poverty and tradition keep families tied to firewood. But it comes at a cost: the hidden danger of household air pollution is a silent, daily assault on their health.

Deadly indoor pollution

Indoor air pollution is a global killer. ­It is one of the world’s least discussed but deadliest health risks. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it causes 3.2 million premature deaths every year, mainly from pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease, and lung cancer. Some  3.2 million people die every year from exposure to household smoke, including over 237,000 children under five.

In Kenya, research based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study estimates that around 23,000 people die annually from household air pollution, making it the eighth leading cause of premature death nationally.

This is more than outdoor air pollution. The youngest are most vulnerable: pneumonia remains the leading killer of children under five.

The culprit is familiar: household use of solid fuels such as wood, charcoal, dung, and crop residues, burned in open fires or inefficient stoves. 

In Kenya, about 70% of households still cook with these fuels, according to World Bank data.

In rural and peri-urban communities like Kibiko and Nalepo, kitchens are often poorly ventilated. The smoke levels inside can reach 10 times higher than the WHO’s recommended safe limits for fine particulate matter (PM2.5). 

Kajiado County records respiratory diseases as among the top outpatient cases, according to Kenya’s Ministry of Health.. 

Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) scientists have linked prolonged smoke exposure to heightened risks of acute respiratory infections in children and chronic respiratory disease in adults. 

Wesley Mochama, a nurse at Oletepes Health Centre, sees the toll daily: “Children come in with persistent coughs and wheezing. Mothers suffer from headaches and burning eyes. Almost every time, the root cause is the same – smoky kitchens.”

Women and children worst affected

Indoor air pollution is not an equal-opportunity killer. Women and children bear the heaviest burden. Women like Nasieku spend long hours each day tending fires in kitchens that double as smoke chambers. 

Children, often strapped to their mothers’ backs or playing nearby, breathe in the same toxic air. Studies show children under five are at the highest risk of pneumonia from indoor smoke. The economic burden is also gendered. Women lose time collecting fuel, and families spend money on hospital visits that could have been prevented.  

The energy poverty trapping women in smoky kitchens also perpetuates cycles of poor health, missed school days for children, and lost productivity for families.

Despite the risks, a slow transformation is underway in Nalepo and Kibiko.  A handful of households have shifted from three-stone fires to clean cooking stoves, a simple innovation that burns fuel more efficiently and produces far less smoke.

The difference is visible. Kitchens once blackened by soot now have clearer walls, mothers no longer cook with streaming eyes, and children cough less. Families are also saving money on firewood. Yet adoption remains stubbornly low.                       

The barriers are complex: affordability, durability concerns, and cultural habits. For stable foods like ugali and githeri, many believe only a three-stone fire achieves the right taste and consistency.

Solutions are within reach

According to the Ministry of Energy’s Bioenergy Strategy (2021–2027), only a small percentage of rural households have transitioned to modern cooking solutions. 

The government’s goal is to reach universal access to clean cooking by 2030, but progress is slow, hampered by cost, infrastructure gaps, and cultural resistance.

Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum launched the National LPG Expansion Programme, known as the Mwananchi Gas Project, aiming to give free 6 kg gas cylinders and burners to low-income families, a bold recognition that clean cooking is both a health and energy imperative. 

Schools are also being transitioned from firewood to LPG, reducing deforestation and protecting health.

The government’s Last Mile Connectivity Project, backed by the African Development Bank, is delivering over 150,000 new rural electricity connections in 45 counties.

Within it, the Kenya Electric Cooking Market Development Initiative (KEMDI) aims to expand Electric Cooking from 49,000 to 500,000 users in three years, subsidising electric pressure cookers and induction stoves. 

Kenya Power is piloting 47,000 subsidised cookers in Kiambu, Machakos, and Kajiado — cutting household reliance on biomass.

Complementing this, the Green Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Program (GEEP) supports youth-led enterprises in clean energy, focusing on solar lights and improved cooking stoves.

Last-mile entrepreneurship

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Kenya is a central player in the country’s clean cooking transition, aligning its work with the Kenya National Cooking Transition Strategy (KNCTS), which targets universal access by 2028. Beyond simply distributing stoves, GIZ is strengthening the ecosystem needed to sustain long-term adoption.

“We are not only distributing stoves but building a clean cooking sector, strengthening supply chains, financing, and awareness. Clean cooking is about dignity, climate resilience, and creating jobs,” says Venice Makori of GIZ Kenya.

GIZ has also flagged last-mile entrepreneurship projects, training women and youth to become clean energy champions and distributors in their villages. These initiatives are supported by innovative financing tools, including results-based financing (RBF), carbon credit schemes, and partnerships with county governments.

“Last-mile entrepreneurs are the backbone of the clean cooking transition,” says Ezekiel Moseri, a clean cooking expert at GIZ.

“They are the ones who reach the villages, explain how the stoves work, and build trust with households. Without them, even the best technology will remain in shops in Nairobi. 

“We are investing in women and youth at the community level, helping them become distributors and technicians, so that clean stoves are not just available, but truly accessible.” 

At the policy level, GIZ provides technical advice to the Ministry of Energy and supports Kenya’s participation in global climate initiatives. 

“Clean cooking is not just about health – it’s about livelihoods, dignity, and climate resilience,” Moseri says.

Subsidies and microfinance

According to experts from the Ministry of Energy and GIZ Kenya, other solutions include subsidies and microfinance, facilitated through Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations and women’s groups. 

These financing options can make stoves accessible through pay-as-you-go models, loans, or community savings groups.

Some of the pathways to clean cooking in Kenya include cultural adaptation to provide stove designs that align with traditional cooking.

Community-led education, especially through community health workers, can also raise awareness of smoke-related risks, improve trust, and increase people’s willingness to adopt clean stoves.

The government of Kenya could integrate clean cooking into national health and energy priorities to reduce disease burden and support global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relating to health, gender equity, clean energy and climate action.

The government could also offer subsidies and tax incentives to lower household barriers.

Finally, donor-driven models involving results-based financing, carbon credits, and last-mile entrepreneurship could make clean stoves affordable, strengthen supply chains, and support sustainability.

‘Smoke doesn’t have to be part of our lives’

This is not just a local crisis; it is a global one. The women of Kibiko and Nalepo in Kenya represent millions worldwide who continue to cook in smoky kitchens. 

Naomi Parpai, 38, a mother of six in Kibiko who has been using a three-stone fire, says it has been affecting her.

“Every day, I cough. My chest feels heavy. I thought it was just dust. Then I learnt it’s the smoke. But what choice do I have? We use what we can find: wood, sometimes maize cobs.”

Her 12-year-old son can’t do homework because the smoke burns his eyes. Sometimes it forces him outside, even when it is raining.

Parpai’s neighbour, Beatrice Mpeti, says her last born child was infected with pneumonia. She now feels helpless.

Back in Nalepo, Nasieku reflected: “The smoke has always been part of our lives. But maybe it doesn’t have to be.”

Nasieku’s neighbour told her how she was able to buy an improved cookstove through a local women’s savings group. It was a basic model — a rocket stove — priced at KES 2,500, paid in three monthly installments.

“Her kitchen has no black soot anymore,” Nasieku observes. “She said her firewood now lasts twice as long.”

Encouraged, Nasieku joined the Naserian Women Group, a community-based organization that partners with GIZ Kenya and the Clean Cooking Alliance to distribute affordable stoves and make briquettes from farm waste. 

Through a pay-as-you-go model, Nasieku also received her own improved stove within weeks.

“It felt strange at first. But my eyes don’t sting any more, and my children stopped coughing at night,” she says. “I use half the firewood now, and spend less time gathering it,” she said.

Health and energy goals

Change is possible. You can see it in homes where clean stoves have been adopted, healthier families, brighter kitchens, and empowered women. But for that change to reach everyone, it will take sustained effort, affordable access, and the belief that no meal should come at the cost of someone’s lungs. 

The smoke may be an old companion in these kitchens, but the community is ready to leave it behind. The question is whether the rest of us policymakers, innovators, donors, and citizens will help clear the air.

Siamanta’s children, doing homework beside her smoke-free stove, represent a brighter future. The battle against household air pollution is about more than clean kitchens. It’s about health, dignity, gender equality, and climate resilience.

The clean cooking stove isn’t just a metal object — it’s a tool of empowerment, a health intervention, and an economic equaliser. Women save time, protect their health, and gain control over household energy decisions.

But for this transformation to reach everyone, barriers like cost, credit access, and cultural beliefs must be addressed systematically.

Global struggle 

Kenya isn’t alone in tackling smoky kitchens. In Ethiopia, a World Bank–backed program has supplied improved stoves to more than 10 million households.

Rwanda integrates clean cooking into its climate adaptation financing, linking every stoke to carbon accountability (Climate and Clean Air Coalition, 2021) 

Meanwhile, India’s Ujjwala Scheme distributed free LPG connections to over 80 million rural households, although many still struggle to afford refill costs.

In Kenya, tackling indoor air pollution aligns with national health goals, environmental sustainability, and gender equity. For the world, it contributes to climate commitments and the SDGs. It is also a question of justice. Why should women pay with their lungs to put food on the table?

But Kenya’s path to clean cooking needs stronger political will, better financing options, public-private partnerships, and grassroots innovation. Local women’s groups like Naserian are already leading the way by making fuel briquettes, promoting clean stoves, and organising group purchases of these stoves.

This story was produced as part of a collaboration between Health Policy Watch and the KEMRI Health Journalism Programme.

Image Credits: Ezekiel Moseri/ GIZ.