Mukuru Clean Stoves transforms waste into life-saving solutions, using recycled metal to manufacture clean cookstoves and agricultural waste to produce a patented mosquito-repellent fuel. Through a network of women entrepreneurs, we reach the last mile, protecting families from household air pollution and malaria, two of the deadliest threats in underserved communities.

Working in partnership with local governments, we are redefining clean cooking as a public health intervention. By delivering stoves and fuel as part of postnatal discharge care, we ensure that mothers and newborns are protected from their very first days at home.

VISION

To ensure every household in Africa has access to clean, safe, and life-saving cooking solutions.

MISSION

To design and scale locally manufactured clean cooking solutions that protect health, empower women, and strengthen climate resilience, reaching the last mile through communities and public systems.

MORE ABOUT US

OUR STORY

Our Story: Life began with hardship. Orphaned at the age of 10 and raised in Mukuru, one of Nairobi’s largest informal settlements, Charlot Magayi grew up navigating risk, poverty, and uncertainty.

By sixteen, she was a young mother. With limited options, she began selling charcoal, the same fuel she relied on at home. But the consequences were devastating. Both Charlot and her daughter suffered repeated respiratory infections, and at just two years old, her daughter sustained severe burns from a traditional stove.

Determined to change her circumstances, Charlot returned to school as an adult. There, she discovered the link between household air pollution and the fuels she had depended on for survival. What had once been a personal struggle became a clear mission.

She founded Mukuru Clean Stoves to ensure that no family would have to choose between cooking and their health.

Today, Mukuru Clean Stoves designs and manufactures clean, affordable cooking solutions using recycled materials and agricultural waste, reaching underserved communities across Africa. Through a network of women entrepreneurs and partnerships with governments, the organization is delivering clean cooking at scale, protecting mothers and children, reducing emissions, and building climate resilience.

What began as a personal fight for survival has grown into a movement to end open fire cooking in Africa.

CHARLOT MAGAYI

FOUNDER & CEO

OVERVIEW

Across Africa, millions of families still rely on open fires and traditional stoves fueled by charcoal, wood, and agricultural waste. These methods produce dangerous levels of household air pollution, often exceeding World Health Organization guidelines by up to 50 times.

The consequences are severe. Household air pollution is linked to over one million deaths annually across the continent, disproportionately affecting women and children who spend the most time near cooking fires.

The benefits of clean cooking are clear: improved health, reduced fuel costs, increased safety, and significant time savings. Yet for millions of households, the transition remains out of reach due to persistent barriers of affordability, access, and distribution.

Mukuru Clean Stoves is changing this.

We design and locally manufacture clean, energy-efficient cookstoves and patented mosquito-repellent fuel, delivering them to the last mile through women-led distribution networks. In partnership with governments, we are also integrating clean cooking into public health systems, ensuring that mothers and newborns are protected from their very first days at home.

By combining innovation, community, and system-level partnerships, we are making clean cooking accessible, scalable, and life-saving, ensuring it is not a luxury, but a basic right for all.

OUR IMPACT