🇰🇪 Leadership

Her Excellency Rachel Ruto, First Lady of the Republic of Kenya, is a passionate advocate for clean cooking, women's empowerment, and sustainable development. She officially opened the High-Level Summit on Institutional Clean Cooking, calling for urgent investment in clean cooking solutions as a matter of health, environmental sustainability, and economic justice.

Through her organization Joyful Women, she has championed table banking—a community financing model that enables women to transition from biomass to clean cooking. "Women who once cooked over smoky fires are now using clean stoves and fuels, protecting their families' health while building small clean-energy enterprises," she noted.

At the summit, she emphasized Kenya's ambitious goal of achieving universal access to clean cooking by 2028, describing it as "a promise that no mother or child will pay the hidden cost of cooking with smoke." She called for a redesign of financing logic from isolated projects to coordinated, country-led programmes that deliver at scale.

"I have seen women bend over open fires, their eyes watering, their babies strapped to their backs. No mother should have to choose between feeding her family and breathing clean air."

Julius Migos Ogamba is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya with over 30 years of legal experience. As Cabinet Secretary for Education, he leads the ministry's efforts to transform Kenya's education sector, with a particular focus on institutional clean cooking in schools across the country.

At the summit, CS Ogamba emphasized the critical role of clean cooking in educational institutions: "Our schools are not just centers of learning—they are communities where thousands of children eat daily. Ensuring these meals are prepared in safe, clean environments is fundamental to their health and educational outcomes."

Under his leadership, the Ministry of Education is working closely with NACONEK to scale the successful steam cooking pilot programme from six schools to thousands across Kenya. He highlighted that transitioning school kitchens to clean cooking will reduce operational costs, improve air quality, and create healthier learning environments.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Ogamba served as Chairperson of the Board of Directors at Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen) and Senior Partner at Migos-Ogamba and Waudo Advocates. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Nairobi and a Diploma in Law from the University of London.

Harun M. Yusuf, HSC, is an accomplished educationist with a Master of Arts in Education and Leadership from Kenya Methodist University and a Master of Arts in Project Management from the University of Nairobi. He brings over 18 years of teaching experience, having served as Senior Principal of Garissa High School and Wajir High School.

Under his leadership, NACONEK has pioneered the groundbreaking Steam Cooking Carbon Asset Infrastructure project, successfully transitioning six schools from wood fuel to climate-friendly alternatives. The pilot schools—Nairobi School, Garissa High, Kwale Boys, Kwale Girls, St. John's Kaloleni, and Madogo High—have demonstrated up to 70% reduction in firewood consumption.

At the summit, he presented the proven model that leverages carbon markets and climate financing to make institutional clean cooking sustainable and scalable. "What we've achieved in six schools can become the standard for institutional cooking across Kenya's 45,000 schools," he noted.

Prior to NACONEK, he served as Chairman of Garissa County Public Service Board (2013-2017) and Provincial Chairman of Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA), North Eastern Province.

Dymphna van der Lans leads the Clean Cooking Alliance, a global organization working to ensure universal access to clean cooking solutions. Under her leadership, the Alliance has mobilized significant resources and partnerships to accelerate the clean cooking transition across Africa and beyond. She brings extensive experience in international development, climate finance, and sustainable energy solutions.

At the summit, she highlighted that Kenya's 46,000 schools consume over one million tonnes of firewood annually, spending KSh15 billion on fuel. She emphasized that transitioning to clean cooking would require KSh45 billion but would yield benefits worth more than KSh14 billion annually in environmental, health, and economic returns.