In many African homes, cooking is an everyday ritual, especially for mothers and girls. It’s often a blend of tradition, nourishment, and love. However, behind this familiar routine lies a silent challenge: unsafe, inefficient, and polluting cooking methods that affect our health, time, and environment. This disproportionately affects women and girls who spend up to 4 times longer hours than men cooking and preparing food. Like many women in my community, especially in the village, the reliance on charcoal and firewood for years was common, unaware of the risks the family was being exposed to and not considering the amount of time spent in preparing food. The smoke-filled kitchen was a norm and is still a norm to many rural communities, and the daily struggle of sourcing fuel is an accepted inconvenience.

However, having moved to the urban setting, I transitioned to LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) as my primary cooking fuel, with occasional use of an electric pressure cooker and charcoal. LPG seemed cleaner and more convenient compared to firewood, but I quickly realized it wasn’t a perfect solution; it was still expensive, prone to supply shortages, unpredictable price changes, and not as environmentally friendly as I had hoped.  Until recently, in October 2024, I got the opportunity to participate in the Global Leap Awards, an international competition that identifies and promotes the world’s best, most energy-efficient appliances and equipment intended for use in energy-constrained settings, as a test user. The 2024 Global LEAP Awards focused on Induction Cooktops Competition. I had a chance to interact with a range of 11 induction cookers (ICs). An exceptional experience I feel privileged to have, and an eye-opener to the dynamics of the clean energy space. My Name is Sello, a mother of 2, living in Kasarani, Nairobi, Kenya.

A Costly, Health-Risking Way of Life

Cooking with traditional fuels, including charcoal, firewood, kerosene and even LPG has long been the norm for many African households. However, these methods come with hidden costs:

High costs: Charcoal prices have been rising within the day with the current price of a 2kg charcoal tin rising from Ksh 50 in 2020 to Ksh 120 today. The tin can averagely cook 3 to 4 meals at most depending on the size of the family and type of food. Kerosene prices for cooking stoves have also been increasing day by day with the monthly fuel prices review by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA). LPG refills have been unreliable due to supply chain issues, expensive, (with a13kg cylinder going for Ksh 2500, and can only run my family for 1 month) and the unpredictable fluctuating prices making budgeting difficult. Charcoal for me often comes in as a backup, despite being aware of its environmental impact, I occasionally rely on charcoal, especially when preparing dishes that require more energy and longer time to prepare.

Time-consuming: Preparing meals over charcoal required constant attention, making multitasking difficult. It also comes with a lot of hygiene maintenance issues like constant refilling of the jiko with charcoal, and exposure of smoke and ash, which have proven to be dangerous if not well taken care of, especially in urban setting where often the kitchen space is very small and with limited aeration. LPG compared to charcoal is a bit faster but also requires constant monitoring

Limited use of electric cooking: Even though I own an electric pressure cooker, I use it sparingly because of concerns about electricity costs, but I have soon come to outgrow this misconception after keenly observing the cost incurred in buying electricity tokens, and adaptability to different meals.

Like many women, I must admit that I have been caught in this cycle, of navigating different cooking options depending on the type that is most accessible, reliable and affordable, not because I wanted to, but because I didn’t know a better alternative.

A New Chapter of Clean Cooking

This changed when I participated in the Global LEAP Awards Induction Cooktop Competition, as a test user of 11 different IC brands. It introduced me to induction cooking, a technology that has proven to be energy-efficient, fast, safe and clean cooking. At first, I was skeptical. How could a cooktop without an open flame replace my trusted charcoal jiko or gas burner? Would an IC really work for my daily meals? How much electricity would it consume? Would it be too complicated to use?

But as I started using the different ICs, my doubts disappeared. I quickly saw the difference and realized the potential of clean cooking. Here is what I discovered;

Cleaner, healthier and safer cooking: Unlike the use of charcoal and LPG, induction cooking has no smoke, no soot. Cooking with IC is just clean, breathable air for my family. The persistent coughs disappeared, and I no longer had to endure teary eyes while cooking. Pooping into my kitchen while preparing a meal, you could barely notice the source of energy, but just the delicious aroma of food. Cleaning up my kitchen surface after cooking was a breeze, the sleek surface of most ICs was wiped clean in seconds.

Time-Efficient and convenient: Cooking was faster! Water boiled in less than half the time compared to my traditional methods. I barely took more than 40 minutes preparing a basic meal like ugali, beef and vegetables. I had more time to focus on my children and personal growth. Another thing is the size of the IC, being compact and portable, I was able to integrate the IC into my small kitchen space without having to shift the arrangement and structure of my kitchen. Most of the ICs models had pre-set cooking functions, though some were not tailored to Kenyan cuisine. However, I had an opportunity to interact with an IC locally made in Kenya, which I felt was more versatile to the Kenyan cuisine and highly efficient as well.

Cost-Effective: While I initially worried about electricity bills, I soon realized that electric cooking generally is surprisingly more energy efficient lowering my energy costs. Cooking githeri on jiko-charcoal cost me ksh 240 (two tins of charcoal). Charcoal is also quite slow, taking 3-4 hours to cook, with constant monitoring to refill the jiko with charcoal. With an electric pressure cooker, I only use 2 electric units which costs ksh 56, I then shift to IC to fry my githeri, which also takes 0.8 electric units which costs ksh 22. I saved money while using a cleaner, faster, and more convenient method.

Easy Adaptation: Since I already had an electric pressure cooker, integrating induction cooking into my routine was easier than expected. It became my go-to solution, reducing my dependence on LPG and charcoal. While learning the settings of how to operate the induction cookers took a few tries, the process was smooth. All of them had manuals, with some having more simplified and elaborate instructions. I loved the fact that a few of them had, in the manual, troubleshooting options, and some even went further to provide emergency contact number for customer support. The cooktops were user-friendly, and with a few practice meals, I got the hang of it.

Sustainability and the bigger picture: With every meal, I felt empowered knowing I was making a small yet impactful contribution to reducing deforestation and carbon emissions. I no longer have to use charcoal which I know is produced from a tree cut somewhere. Every meal cooked on induction means less reliance on fossil fuels, contributing to a greener future.

Learning, Adapting, and Sharing

Through the Global Leap award test user project phase, I learned not just how to use the induction cooktop but also how to maximize its benefits. Engaging with other participants in focus groups and WhatsApp discussions helped me learn best practices and troubleshooting tips, exchange recipes and discovering creative ways to cook traditional meals using modern technology. We shared our experiences daily, although very few of us struggled with electricity blackouts. While we were initially worried about needing induction-compatible cookware, the project provided them for us.

The impact of induction cooking was not just personal but community-wide and immediate in different ways, including;

Inspiring others: Several of my friends saw the benefits and expressed interest in switching to induction cooking. The aesthetics, portability and efficiency of IC made it more appealing. Seeing the experience of my cooking journey and being able to gauge the amount and time used to prepare meals made it very easy to convince them on its efficiency. Installing and using the IC as mentioned earlier didn’t require me to alter any of my kitchen arrangement. What I literally did was to flap my LPG cooker and place the IC on top.

Energy savings cost: On average, I spent 30-40% less on energy costs compared to use of LPG and charcoal. Previously, I would spend about ksh 4500 as cooking but energy cost in a month, but with IC and pressure cooker, I used about ksh 3000.

Creating awareness and empowerment: I now use my induction cooktop and electric pressure cooker more frequently, reducing my carbon footprint. I have also become an advocate for clean cooking, sharing my experience with neighbors and family. More women in my network are now considering induction cooking as a viable alternative, shifting perceptions that electric cooking is expensive or impractical.

Call to action

This experience reinforced an important truth: African mothers are ready for change, but we need access and awareness. Induction cooking is not just a luxury; it is a necessity for health, economic, and environmental sustainability. I would therefore recommend that governments support policies that promote clean cooking solutions through subsidies and awareness campaigns. Clean cooking Stakeholders must also ensure affordability and accessibility so that more households can make the switch to these kinds of technologies. It is also a call for communities to embrace adaptation, because the future of cooking should be clean, efficient, and sustainable.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of this transformation. As an African mother, my priority is the well-being of my family, and clean cooking is one of the best gifts I can give them.