Kilifi County Government has launched strategies to adopt clean cooking energy solutions in order to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change in the region.
Kilifi is among the counties mostly affected by climate change due to deforestation with 80 per cent of the residents depending on wood fuel contributing to negative impacts on the environment, health and social wellbeing.
The county signed a five-year MOU today with Clean Cooking Association of Kenya to implement the project dubbed Voices for Climate Action which aims at increasing the adoption of climate-friendly clean cooking solutions like fire briquettes contrary to the use of the now prohibited charcoal and wood.
Speaking to the media after the project launch in Kilifi town, Eric Randu, Chief Officer for department of lands, housing and physical planning in Kilifi County said that each of the seven sub-counties now has a briquette-making machine that will be used in production of alternative solutions for charcoal.
Randu said that the briquette production will not only help counter climate change degradation but also create more employment opportunities to the youth and residents in Kilifi.
Director of Energy Division in Kilifi County Wilfred Baya said that secondary schools in Kilifi are the highest consumers of firewood fuel with each school using at least 900 tonnes of firewood per year.
Baya said that the high consumption of firewood has resulted to high deforestation in Kilifi County and therefore there is a tremendous need to institutionalize modern methods of clean cooking so as to combat global warming in the county.
Accounting Officer at Clean Cooking Association of Kenya Philomena Mtalo said that the project will be implemented in Kwale and Kilifi since there are high rates of dependency upon forestation and unsustainable use of biomass in the regions.
Mtalo said that local people in the community will be trained on production and use of briquettes as a way of generating income in replacement for charcoal and curb the adverse effects of climate change.
Economic advisor in the Office of the Governor Kilifi County, Mr Joshua Mazera, said that the ravaging drought is as a result of climate change resulting from deforestation. He said that areas like Magarini and Ganze are the worst affected.
Mazera urged organisations to draw collaborations with the county government in order to support the implementation of the clean cooking agenda.
Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro warned charcoal burners to be ready to face the wrath of the law saying that they have highly contributed to the degradation of the environment hence the drought being witnessed in the county.
He said that residents have been resolving to burning and trading of charcoal while disregarding the long-term effects of climate change.
He flagged off the truck carrying briquette machines funded in collaboration of the county government and Clean Cooking Association of Kenya funded by World Wide Fund (WWF) under the project ‘Voice for Climate Action’.
According to Mung’aro, each briquette Machine stationed in each sub-county is worth Sh 1 million. He urged residents to collaborate with the county’s efforts to curb climate change to get rid of the worsening drought in the area.
By Treeza Auma and Harrison Yeri
