Utumoni in Makueni County is a dispersed farming community of 110 households. Along with traditional crops, avocados and mangoes are cultivated as cash crops and a fifth of families keep livestock. Labour migration is common. Half the adult male population is employed elsewhere and over half (52%) of households are female-headed (compared to 9–21% in the other settlements). Grid electricity reached the village in November 2015 but only one household is connected.

Sibinga, a village of 754 households grouped into about 300 homesteads in Busia County, is close to Lake Victoria and the Ugandan border, on a low hill surrounded by swampy land. Most people are smallholder farmers growing cassava and maize and keeping a few cows. Although not currently grid-connected, community facilities (at least) may be connected in the near future.

This photoreportage was produced in November 2016 and published in the 2017 edition of the Poor People’s Energy Outlook (PPEO).