In the heart of Kenya’s Central Highlands, the lush green fields of Murang’a hum with the quiet rhythm of tea picking, sorting, and drying — a livelihood that supports thousands of smallholder farmers across the region. But behind the scent of freshly processed tea leaves lies a lesser-known story of sustainability, resilience, and a community that understands its place in the global climate puzzle.
Kenya’s tea sector is the largest in Africa and a major foreign exchange earner. In Murang’a, the KTDA-managed tea factories form the backbone of this economy, processing millions of kilograms of green leaf each year. The process, though, is energy-intensive. Steam generation, critical for withering, oxidation, drying, and packaging, depends heavily on firewood.
At face value, this dependency might seem at odds with climate action. After all, biomass combustion contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. But Murang’a’s tea factories are not blind to the implications. In fact, they are among the most proactive players when it comes to climate mitigation, revealing a nuanced relationship between energy use and environmental responsibility.
Understanding the double-edged sword of firewood dependency, the factories have invested in long-term, community-driven reforestation programs. The model is elegant in its simplicity and powerful in its reach. Each factory owns and maintains hundreds of acres of land set aside solely for growing trees intended for harvest. This creates a renewable source of firewood while relieving pressure on indigenous forests. Through deliberate outreach, factories have encouraged farmers to allocate portions of their farms — often the less productive edges — for tree planting. These “tea-adjacent forests” are transforming the landscape, one sapling at a time. Every rainy season, the factories supply thousands of tree seedlings to farmers, ensuring that tree planting is not a one-time campaign but a continuous climate-smart practice embedded in tea farming culture.
“We are fully aware of our energy needs and the environmental consequences. That’s why we’ve taken deliberate steps to grow what we use. It’s not just about tea — it’s about tomorrow,” said one factory manager during a recent visit.
While many have asked why tea factories aren’t switching to cleaner fuels like solar or biogas, factory managers across Murang’a are clear-eyed about the technical limitations. Steam generation for industrial tea processing requires continuous, high-heat output, something that current clean energy options in Kenya are not yet able to reliably deliver at scale.
“We’ve looked at alternatives, but none have matched the consistency we need to process thousands of kilos of leaf daily,” one energy supervisor remarked. “We can’t afford downtime — it means lost income for farmers and factory workers alike.”
This cautious realism does not mean stagnation. On the contrary, these factories are actively exploring hybrid models that could combine improved energy efficiency, cleaner combustion techniques, and future solar thermal integration, once the technology matures.
What makes Murang’a’s story even more compelling is that tea is one of the crops most sensitive to climate variability. Shifting rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, and extended droughts are already being felt in the highlands. This makes tea farmers both contributors to and victims of climate change. And therein lies the moral imperative: tea factories that depend on firewood are also among the most vulnerable to deforestation, water scarcity, and land degradation. That’s why their efforts to mitigate climate impact are not just noble — they are deeply strategic acts of survival.
The Murang’a model offers a valuable blueprint: if industries must use biomass, then let it be locally grown, sustainably harvested, and replanted with intention. Let local communities be both energy producers and forest custodians. Let livelihoods and landscapes thrive side by side.
As Kenya — and the world — grapples with the energy transition, Murang’a’s tea factories remind us that climate solutions aren’t always high-tech. Sometimes, they come in the form of seedlings in the soil, land set aside with care, and a deeply rooted commitment to the future.
Murang’a tea factories may rely on firewood today, but it’s planting forests for tomorrow. That’s a story
