The State Department for Petroleum has pledged to support the quest by the State Department for Correctional Services to transition all its institutions from the use of wood fuel to Liquefied Petroleum Gas and clean energy over the next one year.
Speaking during a tour of the Nairobi Remand and Allocation Prison, which is part of three institutions targeted in the pilot phase of the transition, Petroleum Principal Secretary Kello Harsama said the government is scaling up investment in clean cooking infrastructure as part of ongoing efforts to accelerate Kenya’s clean energy transition and advance the country’s national sustainable development goals.
According to Harsama, 95 percent of the about 11,000 institutions including learning and correctional facilities, are dependent on wood fuel, an obtaining situation which is threatening to reverse the gains recorded in environmental conservation efforts as well as health outcomes.
He said the government will, beginning next year, launch a programme aimed at availing ten million homes with liquefied petroleum gas to ensure that 75 percent of the Kenyan population that is currently relying on biomass for fuel, is supplied with subsidized LPG in ongoing efforts aimed at reducing dependence on traditional biomass fuels.
Correctional Services Principal Secretary Dr. Salome Beacco says the department is targeting full migration during this financial year as it seeks to cut down on heavy biomass costs, reduce carbon emissions, and follow the successful pilot at Lang’ata Women’s Maximum-Security Prison.
The PS said correctional facilities are currently consuming 64,000 metric tonnes of wood fuel each year, a situation that has presented a heavy financial, environmental and health challenge to the department.
The department has identified Nairobi Remand and Allocation Prison, Prisons Staff Training College in Ruiru and the Nairobi probation hostel for the pilot, before the transition is extended to all correctional facilities across the country.
The initiative that is also exploring other clean energy options including biogas, solar-powered stoves as well as integrated steam cooking technologies, aligns with the Kenya National Cooking Transition Strategy (2024–2028) and the Government’s National Tree Growing and Restoration Campaign, which targets 15 billion trees by 2032.
The transition also aligns with the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda, Kenya’s Climate Change Commitments, the National LPG Growth Strategy as well as this year’s Correctional Service Week’s theme of Transforming Correctional Services through Technology and Green Solutions.
