Taita village says goodbye to kerosene, welcomes solar

Two years ago, 27 year old Gladys Mwangae delivered a healthy baby girl. Eight months later, her baby, Faith Mwake, contracted a respiratory infection, which kept her in hospital for two months.

“We have been in and out of hospital until July this year. It has been a painful experience to be admitted with her and being away from home,” Mwangae, a mother of three explained.

Medical examinations showed that baby Mwake was exposed to and inhaled poisonous kerosene lamp fumes.

A few kilometers away from Mwangae’s homestead, a young couple is mourning death of their first born who succumbed to a respiratory infection.

Taita Taveta County and other rural villages in Kenya have been grappling with frequent visits to the  doctor complaining of respiratory ailments attributed to kerosene fumes.

Centre for Environmental Action (CEA), Executive Director Prof Karanja Njoroge explains that the quality of the light is pitiful compared to what you can do with solar.

“Families spend anything up to 25 per cent of their annual income, just on the kerosene for these lanterns. So if you can save them that there’s a lot you can do to foster development,” he said.

Recent data by World Bank estimated that 780 million women and children in Africa and Asia are unknowingly inhaling kerosene fumes daily, which is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.

Part of the report noted that with minimal alternatives for lighting, parents and children in rural Kenya end up using kerosene for lighting, which is cheap. However, this low-cost fuel is expensive, dangerous and unhealthy while providing poor illumination and contributing to carbon emissions.

World Health Organization (WHO) paints an even grimmer picture of poorly ventilated homes, particularly in rural areas, whose residents are exposed to health hazards such as respiratory and eye problems.

While kerosene’s impact on climate change might seem small, Prof. Karanja says fuel for heating makes up three per cent of the world’s oil use.

Mwangae bought the tin lamp, commonly known as a Koroboi in 2007 for Ksh 20.  She blew off the last flame of the toxic Koroboi in July 2015, when she bought a solar lamp.

“I was introduced to solar lighting in June. I saved Ksh 1500 to buy the solar lamp. Today, I am happy. My daughter is recovering really well, and the latest visit to the medics showed improved health. The change has been significant since we haven’t been to hospital in a month. I can only thank God for the gift of solar, and wish I knew about it sooner. My children can do homework comfortably, we can charge our phones and we can sleep late,” she said happily.

Mwangae is among over 54,000 families living in Wundanyi, Taita Taveta County, yearning for a decent lifestyle. Already, over 15,000 families have embraced clean solar energy and abandoned Korobois’.

“On Kerosene alone, I am saving Ksh 120 per month. Out of these savings, I am planning to buy a bigger solar panel. I also plan to start a solar distributing business like other women in this area,” said Mwangae.

Two years ago, Barclays Bank of Kenya and Center for Environment Action (CEA) partnered to start a project dubbed Barclays Eco Energy Entrepreneurs’ (BEEE’s) program in 9 counties.  The partnership has seen CEA train families in the country, on benefits of solar based products; not only to provide lighting but also as a business opportunity. CEA is a resource center that focuses on environmental conservation, community empowerment and capacity building using bottom-up approach.

So far, the BEEE Program has created job opportunities to over 145 youth and women in Taita Taveta County. The youth and women traverse the vast county selling, solar based products such as lantern lamps, solar jikos and solar phone chargers.

Barclays Head of Community Investment, Regina Gichuhi says, “As a bank we want to give youth and women a fairer chance. We have partnered with manufacturers to provide solar based products to budding start-ups at a discounted rate in order to boost job creations.”

Ms. Gichuhi adds, “Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, social equity and a healthy environment.”

To fuel higher uptake of solar based product in the county, Barclays has negotiated for discounted prices with distributors such as BareFoot, EcoZoom and Dlight.

“We realized that incentives such as earning income from the easily available energy resource will motivate the youths, we negotiated for them to get factory discount so they can make a profit considering that they are trading in hardship areas.,” she explained.

She added, “Another reason why the uptake of the lanterns is also higher is because, we have partnered with the best manufacturers globally. So, whenever these young guys are selling the household are guaranteed a two year warranty,” says Gichuhi.

The bank employs a strategy to wean the youth like Mwangae off the donor dependency syndrome by ensuring that they see the business opportunity in selling the lamps as opposed to handing them lanterns for free. Additionally, the bank works with CEA to offer beneficiaries financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills to enable them thrive. “If you sell things affordably at ethical margins, people are going to value them more than if they are just given away. We are barely scratching the surface of the immense business opportunities that lie in solar energy,” she noted.

Access to affordable and clean energy became the 7th of 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that world leaders adopted at a special summit at UN Headquarters. These Global Goals are intended to stimulate action over the next 15 years in areas of critical importance towards building a more equitable and sustainable world for all.

While the goal of ending Africa’s reliance on kerosene in six years might seem like an enormous and ambitious goal, Prof. Karanja argues that says the knock-on effects will be even more important.

“If more families did embrace the use of clean renewable energy, there’s a lot more we could do to speed up improving the world. These savings that people make on their annual income, is diverted to more fulfilling ventures; they may choose to buy a multifunctional solar pack or a bigger solar lantern that can light up the whole small household instead of just provide one point of light. They also have the choice of buying it buys seeds for Agricultural development, or even books