The jewel of Kenya’s green energy revolution has shattered, leaving 1.3 million households in limbo and 700 employees out in the cold.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has formally seized control of Koko Networks, the bio-ethanol cooking fuel startup that was once the poster child for climate finance in Africa. Joint administrators Muniu Thoithi and George Weru have taken the helm of a sinking ship, tasked with salvaging what remains of a company that collapsed not because of market failure, but due to a baffling regulatory silence from the Kenyan government.

The Letter that Never Came

The catalyst for this disaster is a single missing signature. Koko’s business model relied heavily on selling carbon credits to international markets to subsidize the cost of its fuel and cookstoves for low-income Kenyans. To do this, they needed a Letter of Authorization (LOA) from the government, confirming the credits could be sold abroad. For months, the file gathered dust on a bureaucrat's desk.

Despite frantic weekend meetings and crisis talks, the government refused to sign. The result? A 38.6 billion shilling investment has been paralyzed. The silence from the Ministry of Energy and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) is deafening. No explanation has been offered, fueling speculation about lobbying from rival fuel cartels or sheer administrative incompetence.

• The Human Cost: On January 31, over 700 staff members were summarily laid off. These are engineers, sales agents, and logistics experts who built a world-class distribution network, now jobless due to a stroke of a pen that never happened.
• The Consumer Trap: 1.3 million households rely on Koko for affordable cooking. With the subsidy mechanism broken, fuel prices could skyrocket, forcing families back to charcoal and kerosene—a massive regression for public health and the environment.
• Investor Chill: This collapse sends a catastrophic signal to international climate investors. If a company as large and successful as Koko can be strangled by red tape, who will dare to invest in Kenya’s green economy next?

A Self-Inflicted Wound

President William Ruto has championed Kenya as a global leader in climate action, yet his administration has presided over the destruction of the sector’s biggest success story. Koko was proof that green energy could be profitable and pro-poor.

Now, as PwC sifts through the wreckage, the question must be asked: Who benefits from Koko’s fall? The charcoal cartels? The kerosene importers? Because it certainly isn’t the Kenyan people. This is a scandal of negligence that demands immediate parliamentary inquiry. The lights have gone out at Koko, and the government’s silence is the darkest part of the story.