Kenyan Cooking Start-up Uses tech To Cut Costs and Saves Lives

Original Story Published by: Shoshana Kedem, www.africanbusinessmagazine.com
Photo Source: Koko Networks

(Above) The machine dispenses ethanol and is a solution to a problem in Africa: how to get cheap, safe fuel into homes to use for cooking.

Somewhere in downtown Nairobi, a woman dressed in immaculate white trousers and turquoise smock sashays down a congested street.

Walking to the beat of chilled-out music, detached from the cacophony of the surrounding urban sprawl, she gets to a local convenience store and heads straight for their ‘KOKOpoint’ – an ethanol refuelling station used to power home cooking stoves.

At the press of a button on a hi-tech screen on what resembles a soft drinks dispenser, she fills up a small cannister. The advert flashes forward to the satisfied customer, laughing with family members as she docks the cannister up to her cooker, and starts a leisurely day’s cooking.

Launched in Kenya two months ago, KOKO Networks is revolutionising Kenya’s cooking fuel market by targeting low-income households with a cheaper and cleaner biofuel alternative.

The venture capital-backed technology company has over 700 stores in down-market areas of Nairobi that dispense cooking fuel that is cleaner to burn and safer to store and handle than solid or gaseous fuels.

As KOKO expands across the capital, co-Founder and CEO of KOKO Networks, Greg Murray hopes that every household will finally have access to a better way to cook.