Awareness and factors associated with improved cookstove choice among end users in Kericho County, Rift Valley, Kenya

Abstract The understanding of the user engagement, selection and adoption of Improved Cooking Stoves (ICS) in developing countries is important to deploy measures to sustain their use. As part of a project developing, deploying, and empowering communities in developing countries with ICS, this study screened the awareness and choice selection factors for end users selected for ICS adoption. This was achieved through a survey of 1200 households in Kericho County in the Rift Valley, Kenya. The results showed that, despite some awareness of ICS benefits, the traditional and semi-traditional stoves remain dominant (with about 70% in use against 30% of ICS) and are still adopted due to socio-cultural behaviour as well as low financial resources and settings. The study also revealed that 34.6% of end users use cookstoves for functions beyond their primary food preparation role, mainly for space heating, lighting and meat roasting. This is an important and hardly explored factor that should be considered in the design of ICS and the implementation of measures to improve ICS penetration in households in developing countries.