Household cooking fuel choice and associated factors in a rural and peri-urban community in Western Kenya

Polluting fuels such as biomass and kerosene are used for cooking by approximately 85% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) despite the well-known associated negative health effects. Many governments across SSA are aiming to scale up the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a cleaner-burning fuel in terms of black carbon and fine particulate matter emissions, to promote public health and protect the environment by reducing deforestation. In Kenya, the government has been promoting rapid scale-up of LPG as a household fuel by zero rating it. A census survey was administered to over 2000 households in a peri-urban and rural sub-county of Uasin Gishu County to determine cooking characteristics and factors associated with the primary cooking fuel (biomass versus LPG). We found that the majority 72% (n = 1619) of the households mainly use biomass as a primary fuel (86% wood, 12% charcoal, 1.5% wood chips, and 1% kerosene) while about 28% (n = 629) use clean fuels (86.8% LPG, 12.9% biogas/solar, and 0.3% electricity). Peri-urban residents had up to 2.5 times increased odds of using LPG compared to those in the rural sub-county. Supply factors such as easy access to refills affect the number of days the LPG is used per week. Urbanization at sub-county leads to increases in use of LPG for cooking, irrespective of household-level SES. The Government is encouraged to enact policies that would increase the availability of LPG refills to rural communities hence reducing the time and transportation costs that are likely to affect access with consequent low usage.