Media practitioners in Mombasa have been challenged to use the press in advocating for clean cooking techniques to cut on pollution and save forest cover. Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Elly Odhiambo, from the Clean Cooking Association of Kenya (CCAK), said that there is need for the media to sensitise the public to eradicate the insidious threat of indoor air pollution caused by unclean cooking practices. Odhiambo said that the way we cook is a contributor to climate change and a cause of preventable deaths.
He urged the media to help in enlightening the masses on the effects caused by climate change as they use unclean cooking practices. Firewood and charcoal are classified as polluters by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Clean cooking fuels that are safe for the environment and household use include solar power, cooking gas (liquefied petroleum gas), biogas, and electricity from renewable sources like solar or wind.
The majority of people still consider a gas stove as luxury, let alone an electric pressure cooker. Odhiambo said women who take up a major role in cooking in many communities in the world, their perspective on the topic of clean cooking must be put into consideration. The government has made strides to move everyone to embrace clean cooking, but at the same time it is expensive to people at the grassroots level.
“It is easy for the media to change the perception of people on clean cooking for the country to achieve the universal goal of adopting clea.