Kenya: A Conversation with Charlot Magayi

Cape Town — Earlier this week, former Earthshot Prize winner Charlot Magayi appeared at Earthshot, offering her support and inspiring the next generation.

Charlot Magayi, founder of Mukuru Clean Stoves, is changing lives with eco-friendly, affordable cookstoves for low-income households across Kenya. She is the winner of the 2022 Earthshot Prize in the Clean Our Air category.

Founded in 2017, Mukuru Clean Stoves is dedicated to keeping children safe, reducing household air pollution, and saving fuel.

Nearly four in five people in Africa are exposed to household air pollution.

In Africa, nearly four out of five people are exposed to household air pollution due to cooking smoke, which is part of a greater air pollution crisis, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Most traditional cookstoves in sub-Saharan Africa are fuelled by locally sourced wood and are vital for cooking, but hazardous to the environment and health. The use of high-polluting cooking fuels, such as coal and firewood, contributes as much carbon dioxide to global warming as the aviation industry, according to UNEP.

The International Energy Agency reports that women and children account for 60% of early deaths caused by smoke inhalation and household air pollution in Africa. Air pollution is more harmful to children because their immune systems are still developing, making them more susceptible to respiratory infections. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that household air pollution caused 3.2 million deaths per year in 2020, including 237,000 deaths for children under five.

Mukuru clean stoves, however, are transforming lives by providing cleaner, safer cooking solutions, and affordable stoves for low-income households.

The Mukuru clean stove is made from locally sourced waste metal, which reduces toxic air pollution and carbon emissions by 90%. It reduces the burden on women who must spend hours each day collecting firewood because of the increased efficiency. More than 400,000 clean stoves have been sold in Kenya since 2017, saving families over $50 million in fuel costs while influencing the lives of over 2,000,000 people by providing cleaner air and reducing the emissions of over 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

allAfrica’s Melody Chironda caught up with Magayi to discuss her Earthshot Prize-winning experience, malaria-fighting fuel, how we can reduce emissions in Africa, and what she hopes will happen in the next decade.

Could you describe the experience of winning the Earthshot Prize?

It was mind-blowing; it’s still surreal even though it was almost two years ago. But it opened doors we didn’t know were there. It allowed us to access resources and partners we didn’t imagine we’d have, especially at this point. Winning the Earthshot Prize has been life-changing for me personally because it’s allowed me to elevate and scale my business much quicker than I had envisioned.

How did you handle community resistance or skepticism about the transition to cleaner cooking methods?

For many people, the impact of household air pollution, especially in rural areas, is not well understood. When we founded Mukuru Clean Stoves, we realized that people often didn’t connect their health problems to the stoves they were using to cook. So, we designed our marketing to focus on awareness and education around household air pollution, ensuring that as we sold stoves, we were also educating communities on the health, environmental, and financial impacts. This approach has helped with adoption, as people are more willing to invest in a product that makes a positive impact in multiple areas of their lives. I believe there has been a noticeable change in air quality and health within these communities.

How can we reduce emissions in Africa on a larger scale?

I think policy could help. We have many small organizations working to tackle air pollution, but to truly scale impact, we need policymakers and governments involved to drive broader awareness and education, especially for those unaware of the risks. This issue should be part of national agendas, such as phasing out open fires, which harm both people and the environment. Government support through policy could accelerate progress. We already have the solutions, and many of us are scaling them in partnership with the organizations. So now we just need to change policies around it and increase awareness about the issues so that more people can gain access to it.

For growth, funding and resources are critical. What has been your biggest barrier to securing consistent funding?

I think the biggest barrier for us has been being a hardware company based in Africa, where access to funding is limited. Most investment comes from the Western world, and although more investors are emerging on the continent, it’s still not enough to support the many solutions here. So for the most part, access has been an issue but the Earthshot Prize has helped by putting us in the same rooms with investors we wouldn’t have access to reach.

Can you tell us more about the malaria-fighting fuel you’re working on now?

We’ve developed a patent-pending technology, the first of its kind, creating fuel from agricultural waste that’s infused with an insecticide to repel mosquitoes with each burn. It looks like a regular briquette but includes this new component, which provides up to six hours of mosquito repellent as you cook. This idea was sparked by a CDC report noting that people still contracted malaria despite having access to mosquito nets, likely because they were exposed while cooking right before they went to bed. So, we developed a solution that protects them while they use our cookstoves.”

When do you expect to bring this to market?

Our stoves are currently distributed in three African countries: Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana. For our fuel, it’s only available in Kenya, but we plan to expand it across Africa, starting with Uganda and Ghana. By 2030, we aim to have our products in all African countries.

How do you see your impact in the next decade?

We hope to impact the lives of about 50 million Africans by providing our solutions to 10 million households with our stoves and fuel solutions. This plan primarily targets East, Central, and West African countries, where household air pollution is a more pressing issue, and plans to expand to Southern Africa as well. For now, our focus remains on the least-developed countries on the continent.

Lastly, why is being an ambassador for Earthshot important to you?

It’s important for me because the Earthshot Prize is the biggest platform we’ve been on. As one of the African winners, and knowing how many solutions we have in Africa that often don’t get the chance to be showcased on such a big platform, I feel it’s my role to encourage more Africans to learn about it and put themselves out there.

If you have a solution for Africa, for the environment, for people – let people know, and allow yourself to get the support you need.