The charcoal champion

Energy scientist goes against the grain on wood fuel

By ARTHUR OKWEMBA, Daily Nation Weekend Magazine, November 1, 2002

Charcoal is such a black and ugly word in conservation circles because it denotes destruction of the environment, but for Judy Wangalwa Wakhungu, it is the only fuel she can see Kenyans using comfortably for the next 10 to 20 years.

For a person whose only contact with charcoal occurred ever so briefly during the occasional visit to her grandmother's home, Prof Wakhungu is extravagantly passionate about wood fuel. Cooking, throughout most of her sheltered life may always have been done on modern fuels - gas and geothermal energy - but many are the times she will argue for the bellowing of smoke from granny's kitchen and the blazing embers of charcoal in the jiko.

The third in a family of five children, Wakhungu is probably remembered more for her gleaming tennis career in the 1970s and 1980s, when she and her sister, Susan, were the Serena and Venus Williams of Kenya. Three degrees and many years later, Wakhungu has returned to make a different sort of mark on Kenya's memory. From where she sits, as executive director of the African Centre for Technology Studies, she knows that wood fuel remains one of the major solutions to Africa's energy problems. It is the position of the organisation she heads, and it is one she believes in ardently.

And she has no shame saying these things in the hearing of men and women who have chosen conservation as their life's work. During this year's World Summit on Sustainable Development in August - and many times before that - she argued strongly for the use of wood and charcoal as many other delegates at the South African meeting presented their case for more efficient fuels, with reduced risks of pollution.

For someone with a string of degrees in energy conservation, it is a little surprising that she can be so out of touch with her peers. Many people acknowledge that they find it difficult to understand why a well-to-do professor would push an awkward argument like that.

Renewable energy

"These countries think adopting policies that encourage renewable energy will work against them," argues Wakhungu. "This is because they will not have a market for their products, and therefore their industries and wealth will not grow."

If you ask her, charcoal burners should be encouraged by a good government policy. Since eight in every 10 people in Kenya depend directly on wood fuel, banning charcoal is not likely to help. "For us," she argues, "the main policy issues that need to be put in place are those on biomass: wood and charcoal fuel. The government should enact policies that allow planting of fast-maturing tree species, especially those that take less than two years," says Wakhungu.

Hers is no position to take in the hearing of Americans, Europeans and other nationals of oil producing countries. But not being in the majority is something Wakhungu is used to, almost like a second skin. After all, she is only one of very few Kenyan women in executive positions in the public and private sector capable of influencing policy.

Getting there, she will tell you, has taken fighting many battles on the way - small skirmishes and major conflicts she has had to win over and over again.

As a child, she remembers how she could tinker with things, curious to understand why they were the way they were. Often, she would get into trouble with her siblings or neighbours, who would make faces at her, thinking she was too much into "boy things".

But she was nursing a strong interest in science and unconsciously getting immersed in the complexities of how energy is produced.

When she completed high school at Nairobi's Loreto High School, Msongari, she joined the St Lawrence University in New York for a geology degree. She was among the first women in the department to study the course, particularly at time when few women took an interest in physical sciences.

Returning to Kenya to work for the Ministry of Energy and Regional Development in the unit of geothermal exploration, she started exploring the whole issue of renewable energy.

Operating as an only female in a male-dominated environment often worked to her disadvantage. When she recalls some of the incidents in her past, a wry smile plays on her lips, but it is clear that she found little amusement in them at the time they occurred. Once, when the exploration team was out in the field, they had to share a tent in the wilderness, but the organisation only made provisions for one tent - to be shared by the whole team. Being the only woman on the team, Wakhungu protested.

Extra tent

"We spent several hours haggling with my boss over the issue. He said there was no money for an extra tent but I fought on until they decided to order one for me. It was a win," remembers Wakhungu.

"For women," a solemn look crosses her face, then fades as she continues, "they have to stand their ground because we are living in a male-dominated world where certain people still harbour negative attitudes towards women."

While at the Ministry, the government's plans to set up the National Oil Corporation of Kenya went into high gear. But there were not enough experts to head and run its activities. It was decided that six people be selected for further training in oil exploration.

Wakhungu was one of them. She left for a master's degree at the Acadia University in Canada, on the understanding that she would return to work for NOCK.

She came back home at a time when the brain drain was peaking. Despite the many offers she received to join various organisations, she kept faith with her employer, the government.

Managing men at the corporation was not the easiest thing she has ever done. Like many women who operate in an environment where cultural practices and traditions make men appear superior no matter their abilities, it became another hurdle for her.

"It was a man's world and I had to be tactical enough to know where there is conflict and where there is cooperation."

After two years at NOCK, she took up a tutorial fellowship at the University of Nairobi, teaching historical and petroleum geology courses. The choice was strategic because the university had a staff training programme under which it met her doctoral study expenses.

But even at the university, an intellectual hub, she encountered gender bias and discrimination. "Because I used to be small in size, some male students looked down upon me - just because of my gender."

The university administration, on the other hand, gave her more than her fair share of tribulations. All women were expected to look prim and proper by wearing skirts, and plaiting their hair. Whenever Wakhungu wore trousers, it became a point of discomfort for her male colleagues.

"I would not budge on that one. I asked one of the officers what, in his opinion, was the best dress to wear, considering that my job involved climbing all over in the field to pick rocks, and working in the laboratory. He said the trouser, and the issue was settled."

Things have got a little easier in recent years, especially after she took three years off from 1990 to study and write her doctoral thesis on energy resource management at Penstate University in the US. It is at this university that her commitment to work for the university wavered: she accepted the lucrative teaching job as assistant professor - until new opportunities came calling.

"It troubled me a lot: whether to go back to the University of Nairobi, which had sponsored me for the PhD programme, or take the opportunity. I settled on the latter," she says. Now that she is back where she belongs, she has no regrets.

She was the only black woman in the new department, teaching a class of about 1,000 students. Combining teaching and research - though demanding - was quite rewarding for her. She was able to research more on the relationship between energy and development.

At Penstate, she also held positions that shot her into the limelight. She was the director of the Women in Science and Engineering Institute, as well as boss of the Science, Technology and Society programme. Additionally, she was a designated expert on the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development.

It was while working on the energy issues at Penstate that the ACTS position came up.

Her predecessor at ACTS, Dr John Mugabe, who went to South Africa to head the science and technology committee advising the New Partnership for African Development, says: "When I handed the mantle to her, I was content that the organisation was in good hands." "One thing that attracted me to ACTS," confesses Wakhungu, "was its distinction as a policy research institute that is truly African. It interrogates issues that other institutions do not."

At ACTS, she is able to explore more what she likes best: creating and influencing policy from a position of knowledge. She had worked for the organisation as a consultant before her appointment, and feels quite at home.

Without wasting too much time on settling down, she has gone full-throttle into achieving the objectives of the organisation she heads. Focusing on enlarging the range of policy choices for Africa's development, the centre advises the continent's delegates on what positions to take on technical matters like intellectual property rights at international fora. It also works with UN bodies, universities, NGOs and governments the world over.

For now, Wakhungu's mind is on the poor and, especially, women: "The government should also encourage the combination of efficient and sustainable ways of using [wood fuel and charcoal] as the best viable ways to solve the energy problems of the poor," an unassuming Wakhungu adds.

Big plans for the city

She is intent on influencing her organisation to look at women as environmental managers, and to find out how they can access science and technology education and tools.

Similarly, she has big plans for the city of Nairobi. She argues that city planning needs to start preparing for population movements into Nairobi and other towns now. This is to provide a basis for planning for water, energy, and jobs as well as how to avoid the mushrooming of slums and environmental degradation.

Other areas she plans to put more emphasis on are agriculture and food security, environmental governance and health as well as highlighting issues of water and energy.

Away from the hectic and energy-consuming activities at the office, Wakhungu still retires to tennis for much-needed relief.

What still baffles friends and foes is how she managed to combine her books and her tennis so successfully.

"To rein in both games and academics, you have to be really regimented. And that is one of her virtues," Betty Wamalwa, one of her tennis contemporaries, says.

Her secret, Wakhungu herself reveals, involved practising very hard for two hours every day and then studying for eight hours. "The techniques I used to succeed in sports are the same ones I applied to excel in academics.."

What she enjoys most is being with her family. And with her sister, Susan, they still play tennis, although "this is just a pastime thing, or a ferocious competition to determine who will buy the other a drink," she says with a throaty laugh.

Asked about her age, she laughs and looks towards the sky: "I was born in the 60s," she answers.

She becomes even more philosophical when you enquire about her marital status. "As women, we really limit ourselves. We have to let nothing stand in our way. The sky is the limit for us, and we have to prove we are worth what we get."

-An AWC Feature