Kitui County Government

Kitui County’s outstanding contributions to renewable energy include:

Installation of solar security lights, 960 lights installed at a cost of KES. 293.2M in all the wards.

Hybridization of more than 60 Water boreholes with solar water pumping systems.

Training on fabrication energy saving Jikos, molding of clay liners and clean cook stoves installation in the 8 sub-counties.

Training on briquettes production as an alternative to charcoal after charcoal ban.

Establishment of seven woodlots for wood fuel.

Publicity campaign on Renewable Energy adoption in the county.

Establishment of Climate Change Fund, enactment of regulations and policy.

Development of County energy Outlook and Study on Impacts of Charcoal ban.

Proposed establishment of a 40 MW Solar power plant in partnership with LOOOP Inc Japan in Kitui.

Planned establishment of energy centers in each sub-county that promote alternative energy technologies, briquettes and woodlots production and establishment. All these are geared towards low carbon development to the benefit of County residents.

Kisumu County Government

Kisumu County Government started Holo Market Power Box. The project was done at Holo market in West Kisumu Ward, Kisumu West Sub-County. It is an off-grid 3.18Kw, 48V system, consisting of 12 Solar panels each 265W, an Inverter charger 3kW, Charge controller 70A, 24 Batteries of 855AH, 2V.

The project aims to light up the entire market Centre so as to increases business hours, improve security and sensitize communities on renewable sources of energy. There are future plans to install street lights on a 50M radius, build and power stalls in the market, and replicate similar projects in all the sub-counties.

Turkana County Government

Turkana County has installed standalone solar system in 105 public institutions (33 Dispensaries, 71 schools, 1 AP line, solar street lights in nine urban centers and four rural centers). This has resulted in improved service delivery in health centers, learning hours in public schools, extended business hours and increased security. The County has installed improved cook stoves in 5 public institutions with the aim of promoting energy conservation and efficiency.

In the geothermal sector, the County has made concerted efforts to have consultative meetings with the investors who are interested in investing in geothermal Energy resource.

SMEs

(Clean cooking technologies sub-category)

Kenneth Ndua Mitambo

Kenneth Ndua the founder of STAMP Investments has won Global awards due to his work in environmental care and safe drinking water. His priced innovation is a modified cook stove JikoRaha has helped in eliminating communicable diseases such as Cholera & Typhoid in remote areas countrywide by purifying drinking water whilst cooking. Apart from producing the multitasking stoves STAMPmanufacturers and distributes Charcoal briquettes, building linkages for solar lanterns products distribution through last mile entrepreneurs. As part of sustainability the social enterprise offers competency based training in renewable energy targeting youths and women.

Dorothy Otieno

Energy access poses a great challenge for rural household with women, children and girls being mostly affected. Indoor Air Pollution and its related illnesses as well as environmental degradation are just but a few challenges faced by these communities. Dorothy Otieno, founder of Nyalore Impact works with women and youths in rural areas to provide alternative cooking solutions by assembling efficient cookstoves and producing carbonized briquettes. With their Last Mile approach, combining social good and commercial benefit they are able to reach rural communities, making household cooking experience not only memorable for themselves but also for the environment by mitigating climate change.

Teddy Kinyanjui

SMEs

(Clean cooking fuels sub-category)

Elana Laichena

Elana Laichena is the Founder and CEO of Acacia Innovations (trading as Kuni Safi). Acacia Innovations manufactures and distributes high-quality, non-carbonized briquettes made of sugarcane waste, as an alternative for charcoal and firewood. They also created the first portable institutional cook stove that can be used with non-carbonized briquettes. Acacia Innovations is the largest supplier of clean cooking fuels to schools in Kenya, with 260+ institutional customers in 20 counties across Kenya, impacting approximately 100,000 school children. The company is employing 60 Kenyans; 50% women and 80% youth.

Raymond Chepkwony

Sistema Bio is an experienced global team with a history of more than 10 years in 4 different continents. In Kenya, over the last 18 months, the team has placed digesters on the ground in 13 counties, over 1,200 homes and served over 7,000 people. Their innovation, a class hybrid digester, offers a solution that is easy to maintain, easy to install and easy to use. The initiative is driven by the desire to improve the wellbeing of all farmers, climate change mitigation, and the harmony of rural communities with our planet.

Arwa Richard Ochieng

Richard Ochieng Arwa is a trained high school teacher, who holds a Bachelor of Education Science from Maseno University (Chemistry, Botany and Zoology). He is the founder and C.E.O of Center for Innovations, Science and Technology in Africa (CIST-Africa), a renewable energy organization based in Siaya county. To date Mr. Arwa has conducted various research projects including Acceptability Test of Bio Ethanol Fuel Made from Water Hyacinth as a Household Cooking and Lighting Energy; Alternative Sources of Raw Materials for Bio Ethanol Fuel Production and Limnobiogical Parameters of Maseno University Concrete Fish Ponds. He has written two handbooks namely Strategies for Rural Development and Ecological Field Hand Book. He has participated several local and international entrepreneurship and innovation conferences including Tonny Elumelu Entrepreneurship furum 2018, France Economic Forum in Africa 2017; African Summit on Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2016 and Tokyo International Conference in Africa 2016. He is a NETFUND Green Innovations Awardee; Water Innovations Challenge Awardee (Water Service Trust Fund 2016) and the winner of Clean Technology and Renewable Energy during Nairobi Innovation Week 2018.

Neville Otuki

Neville is a seasoned energy reporter and co-founder of Energy Siren News – an online news agency that specializes in energy reporting.He has consistently reported and continues to report extensively on renewable energy projects in the region for the past six years. His articles, meant to ignite discourse around green energy, are not only comprehensive but balanced too as a result of wide consultation and input of industry players and policymakers.Prior to founding Energy Siren, Neville reported energy news at Business Daily Africa for five years and seven months.Some of his recent outstanding works in the green energy space include a feature story on Lake Turkana wind farm founder, Carlo Van Wageningen, which was conducted at the site of the plant in Marsabit.Neville holds a degree in Economics and Communication from the University of Nairobi.

Leopold Obi

Leopold Obi is an award winning science journalist with over four years’ experience covering science and environment related topics. As a science journalist, his work focuses on in-depth environmental reporting,drawing connections between renewable energy with climate change, food security, innovation and employment creation in manner that is understandable to both wananchi and policy makers. His articles have appeared in Reuters, Daily Mail, Daily Nation, Business Daily and Christian Science Monitor, among other major publications.

Milliam Murigi

My name is Milliam Murigi, I am a feature writer at People Daily Newspaper. I am 26 years old from Murang’a but currently residing in Nairobi.I started writing about renewable energy and green technologies in general in 2015.Being born and bred in a rural setup where we used to use kerosene and firewood to light I was surprised when I came to the city and found electricity. But one day as I was doing my house chores at night lights went off.I didn’t have alternative B and I was forced to sleep very early that day. The following day I enquired from my neighbors and one of them told me that she has a solution which never disappoints her even when lights are off and that is when she introduced me to solar lamp. I couldn’t keep my eyes off from the lamp and I decided that since I am a journalist I can use my career to educate and create awareness about solar lamps back in my village and trust me this bore fruits and 60 per cent of homesteads in my rural village currently use solar products besides their home having electricity from the main grid.The results really motivated me and I discovered that there are other sources of renewable energy apart from solar and made me concentrate fully on this sector.