Fuel Choices in Urban Kenyan Households

doi:10.7176/jesd/12-14-06

Abstract

In the developing nations of Sub-Saharan Africa, providing households with modern energy services is a critical step towards economic development. A significant proportion of households in Kenya rely on traditional biomass fuels for domestic use. The disadvantages of these fuels are many. Transition to clean fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas or electricity would resolve many of these issues as they do not produce dangerous particulate emissions, and are commercially viable, offering several socio-economic advantages over traditional options. This study applies a multinomial logit model to analyze the fuel choices of cooking fuels in urban Kenyan households. A large microeconomic dataset from Kippra’s Comprehensive study on fuel consumption patterns in Kenya is employed during the analysis. The results show that in addition to income, there are several socio-demographic factors such as education and sex of the head of the household, which is important in determining household fuel choice. To encourage clean fuel use, the authorities should carry out public education campaigns and ensure the availability of these fuels in all areas to avoid harmful effects of biomass fuels and kerosene, more modern and efficient appliances should be made available at affordable rates to ensure more efficient use of these forms of energy. Keywords: Fuel Choices, Households, Urban, Energy economics DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-14-06 Publication date: July 31 st 2021

Highlights

The switch from traditional biomass fuels to modern, reliable and efficient energy sources has the potential to improve globally the welfare of over 2.5 billion people who continue to depend on unreliable and inefficient biomass fuel for their cooking energy needs (IEA, 2006)
1.3 Objectives of the Study The overall objective of this study is to perform an econometric analysis of fuel consumption by urban households in Kenya in order to identify their determinants of fuel choices in major Kenyan urban centre
The average number of household members was 4 while the average level of education was 13.6 years which translates to a diploma level education

Summary

Introduction

The switch from traditional biomass fuels to modern, reliable and efficient energy sources has the potential to improve globally the welfare of over 2.5 billion people who continue to depend on unreliable and inefficient biomass fuel for their cooking energy needs (IEA, 2006). Due to population growth, about 2.7 billion people who will be a third of the world’s population, will depend on biomass fuels for their energy needs by the year 2030 (IEA, 2006). Health effects due to biomass fuel use are massive. The World Health Organization identifies the use of solid biomass fuels as one of the major causes to global ill health. The burning of solid biomass fuels releases small particles into the air, which obstruct airways and lungs and impair immune response (WHO, 2006)

Objectives

Results

Conclusion