2025 Articles

A User-Centered Account of Urban Energy Transitions in Kampala, Uganda

Kersey, Jessica

The rapid and complex effects of urbanization are shifting energy production and consumption patterns on the African continent. Energy poverty is manifesting to an increasing degree and in diverse forms in low-income, vulnerable urban populations like informal settlements and/or “slums.” This photo essay shows the lived realities of the urban energy transitions unfolding across Kampala, Uganda’s many informal communities. Though residents are almost universally connected to the grid, 97% of households and businesses rely on expensive and polluting charcoal. Electricity access is precarious and residents develop personalized fuel-stacking strategies to balance the competing demands of affordability, health, convenience, etcetera. Redundancy, hybridity, and improvisation are key features of the strategies that low-income communities use to meet their daily energy needs in the face of an unreliable, unaffordable, or inaccessible grid. This essay contributes to a growing body of research that aims to center users within discussions of urban energy transitions and sustainable development broadly.