Socio-Economic Factors Influencing Adoption of Energy–

Fuel wood provides the main source of energy for cookingand space heating for over 80 percent of households livingin kenya. the heavy reliance on the biomass energy has exertedan imbalance in demand and supply consequently resulting inadverse environmental effects in kenya. as part of innovationefforts, several energy-conserving technologies have been developed.a unique cook stove named maendeleo was developedand promoted in kenya and more so, west pokot county,northern of kenya, with the goal of reducing the quantity ofwood households use for energy, and ultimately reduce pressureon local forests. however, despite the demonstrated technologicalmultiple benefits and the institutional promotional efforts ofthe maendeleo stove technology; the adoption level of this innovationhas remained low. an important question investigatedin this study was what makes potential users not utilize suchvaluable innovations? socio-cultural, economic, political andinstitutional barriers are considered to contribute to low uptakeof such innovations. this study therefore, sought to assess socio-economic factors influencing the adoption of the maendeleostove in the rural setting of kapenguria division. a surveyresearch methodology with ex-post facto design was employed.the results showed that the age of the respondents had thehighest influence on the non-adoption of the maendeleo stove.given the relatively low adoption level of maendeleo stove inthe county, and the projected increase in the number of peoplerelying on biomass, this study recommends that the governmentand development partners put in place a programme for thepromotion and dissemination of maendeleo stove. there shouldbe further investigation into the adoption behaviour of the respondentson the reasons for non-adoption and discontinuanceof use of the maendeleo stove.