Nairobi News

The Kenya Power Company is out to convince Kenyans to embrace electric cooking as a way of conserving the environment.

The ambitious project was unveiled on September 7, 2023, by Dr Joseph Korir, the company’s Managing Director.

Speaking at the launch of the Global eCooking Coalition (GeCCo) during the Africa Climate Week in Nairobi, Dr Siror said the firm will actively promote the adoption of electric cooking among its 9.2 million customers with a target to increase uptake from approximately 90,000 current users to over 500,000 users in three years.

“Electricity has traditionally been viewed as the expensive cooking alternative by many Kenyans. Middle-class households often own task-specific electric cooking appliances such as kettles or microwaves but rely on liquefied petroleum gas for the bulk of their cooking,” Dr Siror said.

He said there is an enormous untapped potential for e-cooking in the country, adding that the recent data indicated that only 1 percent of electricity customers use the service to cook, with the majority of Kenyans primarily relying on wood fuel and gas.

The company stated that GeCCo is an initiative aimed at accelerating the transition from traditional cooking methods to e-cooking, both domestically and commercially.

According to Dr Siror, the company will work with partners to drive the uptake of e-cooking across the country.

“The utility has partnered with several other organizations including the Modem Energy Cooking Services (MECS), the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), and the Clean Cooking Association of Kenya (CCAK) A champion e-cooking in Makueni, Kitui, Nakuru, Kakamega, and Kisumu counties.”

The partners consist of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), Modem Energy Cooking Services (MECS), Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), and Energising Development (EnDev) among others.

Through its Pike na Power public awareness campaign, Kenya Power aims to raise awareness of e-cooking for increased uptake by its customers. The Company has set up demonstration centres in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, and Mombasa to advance the e-cooking agenda nationally.

Recently, Dr Siror said that it is cheap to cook with electricity and that with Sh20 tokens, someone can cook their beans without much difficulty.

This comes as the company continues to receive complaints from Kenyans about the high cost of electricity and frequent power cuts in some areas.

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