Social-economic factors influencing the adoption of improved energy technologies in Makueni and Machakos counties, Kenya

Abstract

Many peri-urban and rural households use traditional stoves which have low energy use efficiency leading to wasteful use of woodfuel, increase in indoor air pollution and putting more pressure on biomass sources. Energy saving devices have been introduced which are environmentally friendly and economical. The main objective of this study was to establish social-economic factors influencing the adoption of improved energy Multistage sampling technique was used whereby; locations and sub-locations were selected purposefully. Households from four sub-locations were chosen using simple random sampling. A total of 232 households in the four selected study areas were interviewed. The study used questionnaires and interview schedules for data collection. The collected data was coded and entered into the computer for analysis using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and statistics and data software (STATA) presented using tables. Data forecasting analysis was done using the Time series Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) time series model for the period 1991 to 2052. Family size had a significant effect on use of LPG (χ2 = 22.010, P = 0.001) and electric energy technology (χ2 = 20.482, p = 0.002). The result of this research further showed that for the respondent to get kerosene lamps, in Unoa, Kilili and Mung’ala, they travelled more than 1 km whereas in Kilili, they mainly (18.6%) travelled 101 – 600m for the energy device. This showed a significant different in the distance travelled in the four areas (χ2 = 86.194, P = 0.0001). The outcome of the research is useful to many stakeholders including the government, Ministries of Agriculture and Energy, Environmentalists, Market Suppliers of improved energy devices and Researchers.