Kitchens in Kenya have received new stoves. And it’s more important than you think

My eyes begin to water as soon as I enter the small, dark kitchen, which is mainly dominated by a large fireplace. After a few minutes in the smoke from the pieces of wood burning by the stove, I can feel it in my lungs. I cough a little and close my eyes. I am standing in a kitchen in a village in the northwestern part of Kenya in the province of Eldorat. In large parts of the country, it is everyday for many women to stand for several hours and prepare all of the day’s meals in the smoke from a fireplace – but there are also many who avoid the smoke. One of the women busy cooking in the smoky kitchen is Judith Oburo, who says that there is usually no fire in the old hearth. It’s only lit, she says, because I and a handful of journalists have come by to talk about clean cooking. – I have been doing this for the last 30 years, says Oburo, who is clearly more used to the smoke than I am. – I have spent a lot of money at the doctor because of my health. But now I use a clean cooking stove and my health has improved. Clean cooking is a collective term for cooking from safe and more sustainable fuels, which do not pollute the air and make people in the home sick, in contrast to fireplaces or traditional stoves that use biomass such as wood or coal. Two packs of cigarettes a day Both in Kenya and in large parts of the world, people get sick and die because of the air pollution from polluting fireplaces. In 2019 alone, according to the World Health Organization, WHO, 22,000 died due to indoor air pollution in the East African country of Kenya. At the same time, it is moving in the right direction. Worldwide, many people have switched to so-called clean cooking, where instead of using old polluting stoves or open fireplaces, far more energy-efficient stoves are used. Danish Catrine Shroff is working to spread more health-friendly stoves to Kenyan kitchens with her business Mwangaze Light. This is where Judith Oburo’s stove comes from. – The smoke you inhale if you cook three meals a day is equivalent to two packs of cigarettes, says Shroff. So the smoke they inhale is simply incredibly dangerous to their health.



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