Kenya

Practical Action East Africa

Eastern Africa is affected by poverty and the majority of people live below the poverty line as economic, political and natural hazards constantly affect these areas. The problems they face include:

  • Over 70% of people living in rural east Africa have no access to grid electricity or any other form of modern commercial energy.
  • Poor people, particularly women, often expend large amounts of time and effort on transporting goods - on foot - to meet basic subsistence, economic and social needs.
  • Food production is one of a complex set of options that rural communities pursue to secure better livelihoods, and in recent years, hunger and at times famine have had a devastating impact.

Practical Action has been working in eastern Africa since the 1980s, and the regional office was opened in Nairobi in 1992. We now operate in the Nairobi, Nakuru, Lake Victoria, Mandera, Lodwar (Turkana and Pokot) and Karamoja areas of Kenya, with projects extending into parts of Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia. Examples of our work in Kenya include:

Fireless cookers
A simple but clever cooker that cooks food without fuel has the power to change a family's life - and can be made simply and cheaply using local resources.

Micro-hydro power
Micro-hydro plants can be used to mechanise crucial tasks like grain milling, and to power small businesses, as well as to bring community and household light.

Shallow wells save lives
Safe, clean water can stop more innocent victims getting caught in the crossfire, when conflict over water spills into bloodshed in north-west Kenya.

Adapting to climate change
Women in northern Kenya are having to travel further each day in search of water, but improved panniers can make more efficient use of donkey transport.

  

Playpumps
Working with a poor community in Kenya, Practical Action introduced a water pump with an ingenious power supply – the energy of children at play.

Toilets without water
Bio-latrines are "dry" toilets that require no water to work. In areas where water is scarce, such as Kitale in Kenya, they have helped to keep schools open.

Improved sanitation in Kenyan slums
Find out how TV stars Ant & Dec got on when they visited a Practical Action water and sanitation project in Kibera, Kenya. Watch video

Read more about our work on the Practical Action East Africa website