Socio-cultural factors in influencing housholds' choice of continuos cooking fuel in Garissa municipality

Abstract

The focus of this study was to inquire the influence of socio-cultural factors on the choices of cooking fuel of Household in Garissa municipality. The 9tudy sought to achieve a number of objectives. First, it sought to find out the basic demographic, sociocultural characteristics of the households in Garissa County. The demographics tested were location, county of birth, size of household, age, type of roofing, house ownership, occupation, level of education, and marital status. Secondly, the study sought to explore the main sources of cooking fuel available to households in Garissa Municipality. Thirdly, the study investigated the influence of socio-cultural factors influence on the choice of cooking fuel among households in Garissa Municipality. Some of the sociocultural factors investigated includes; tastes and preferences among respondents living in Garissa municipality from different counties with different socio-cultural background, cooking practices and local cuisine, gender relations and cultural attachment. Lastly, this study sought to establish how the economic, demographic, health and safety concerns determine the choice of cooking fuel among households in Garissa Municipality.

The study used a combination of both quantitative and qualitative techniques to collect data from the field. The methods were survey and Focus Group Discussions, direct observation and photographing. The study findings reveal that even though community cultural preferences are different, there is convergence in terms of energy choices because they are accustomed to cuisines that have traditionally been prepared using biomass energy. The study concludes that deliberate efforts should be put in place by relevant authorities to reduce overreliance of households on the use of biomass fuel such as firewood and charcoal as sources of fuel since their impact on environmental degradation and health is insurmountable. The study also recommends that since demographic and socio-cultural factors i.e. cultural cuisines influence fuel choices for cooking, it is important that policy makers, fuel product producers and marketers should look into technologies that can produce alternative fuel products that can yield the same tastes.