Rotich’s move on stoves, cooking gas a healthy idea

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has reduced the import duty on energy-efficient stoves and exempted liquefied petroleum gas from payment of Value Added Tax. The measures are meant to enhance the quality of life for citizens in rural areas who continue to suffer ill-health because of using firewood as a primary source of energy.

According to Rotich, the measures are also intended to support the government’s conservation efforts as fewer trees will be destroyed to provide firewood and charcoal. The reduction of import duty on such stoves from 25 per cent to 10 per cent will align them with similar stoves and cookers that use gas, electricity and other fuels and that attract 10 per cent import duty.

“The use of wood and charcoal by many Kenyans exposes them to premature deaths as well as denying them access to clean, safe and efficient household energy,” said Rotich in this year’s financial estimates he read in Parliament last week.

Around the globe, use of firewood for cooking and lighting accounts for ten per cent of all deaths worldwide. This is more than the deaths caused by tuberculosis, malaria and HIV and Aids. According to a report in CBC News, a woman using firewood to make breakfast, lunch and dinner inhales smoke equivalent to smoking 20 packets of cigarettes a day.

“Clean cooking technologies, such as advanced cook stoves and solar powered systems, exist. But they need to be affordable, efficient and long lasting to replace traditional methods,” said CBC News.

A paper prepared by the Kenya Forestry Research Institute in 2012 said that wood energy provides 70 per cent of Kenya’s national energy needs. This has led to widespread depletion of the country’s forest cover that currently stands at 5.9 per cent. Increasing forest cover to 10 per cent is part of the country’s ambitious economic blueprint, Vision 2030.

It remains to be seen if business-people will heed the call to lower the price of the two items and contribute to a healthy nation.

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