Godfrey Mawira

Last edited: 10 March 2021

Godfrey Mawira is a Civil Engineer and a Project Manager with the United Nations, overseeing major infrastructural and humanitarian projects across East Africa. He founded Eco-mandate ltd., a solar cookers seller, renewable energy promoter and research firm based in East Africa. He holds MBA in Project Management (KU), Bsc- Civil Engineering (UoN) and MSc-Civil Engineering (UoN)- candidate. He is trained in FIDIC contract management, Arbitration and Construction Adjudication and is a member of professional bodies like Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK), Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) and Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb)- Associate.

Godfrey has done numerous designs of energy-efficient facilities, cafeterias and developed construction guidelines for Kenya's county governments, school kitchens, solar lighting projects, institutional and household solar cookers, UN security bunkers plus the integrated physical planning of the Kakuma Refugee Camp. He was the structural engineer in the development of the upcoming 33-storied sky scrapper for Kenya National Assembly in Nairobi CBD. He’s a researcher on sustainable energy. His solar cooking promotion activities include the record-breaking Kakuma Solar Cooking Festival with 1000 refugees in 2017, solar cooking demos at UNEP’s Environment Day Food Fair and Kenyan County of Governors Innovations Forum. According to Godfrey, Jesus Christ is the Solid Rock and Foundation upon which his success story is anchored.

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September 2017: Webinar: Solar Cooking Sector Updates Refugee Working Group Call - SCI sponsored the refugee working group phone conversation on 21 September as part of the Sector Updates webinar. Godfrey Mawira submitted a summary of current projects in Kenya from the Eco-mandate Group. Eco-mandate efforts in Kenya - Godfrey Mawira

Kakuma_refugee_camp_setting_the_pace_in_use_of_renewable_energy — Kakuma refugee camp setting the pace in use of renewable energy

April 2017: On April 29, 2017, a solar cooking festival for 500 schoolchildren was held at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. The idea was originated by three of the participants at the 6th SCI World Conference 2017, put on in January by Solar Cookers International in Gujarat, India. Roger Haines, CEO of Haines Solar Cookers, Ritesh Raithatha, CEO of Simplified Technologies for Life, and Godfrey Mawira Kaburu, an engineer with the World Food Program in Nairobi. At the Gujarat conference, Godfrey presented the results of his study showing that in October, 2016, solar cooking was the second-most preferred method of cooking at the Kakuma Refugee Camp, even though very few solar cookers were available. To create an inexpensive, durable cooker for the festival, Roger collaborated with Sharon Clausson, designer of the Copenhagen Solar Cooker, to design a “Haines-Copenhagen” cooker using Roger’s metallized polyester (MPET) foam reflector, and a UV-resistant polycarbonate Haines Cooking Sleeve. The cookers were made in Kakuma by refugees from materials donated by Haines Solar Cookers, and should last 10 years with proper care. Ritesh’s company, Simplified Technologies for Life, has produced “Suryakumbh” solar cooking festivals for almost 120,000 participants in India, and holds the Guinness Record for the most people solar cooking at the same time: 7,438. Ritesh and his colleague, Vivek Kabra, provided expertise and leadership for the festival. Godfrey put together a team of experts, including Mwenda Wilkinson, who handled the logistical, financial, and personnel details. The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) generously donated the services of Raphael Nyabala and Wilson Kinyua and many others to recruit the children and provide facilities and transportation. Funding was provided by Haines Solar Cookers and the San Diego, California, Rotary Club. Additional support and resources came from Solar Household Energy (SHE), a Washington, DC solar cooking organization. Other partners included Eco-Mandate, which sells solar cookers in Chuka, Kenya, the Alliance for African Assistance, a San Diego-based refugee resettlement organization, and the Rotaract Club of the University of California, San Diego, which made 500 Water Pasteurization Indicators (WAPIs) for the Festival participants. Training was provided by Faustine “Mama Solar” Odaba, and her Nairobi NGO, NAREWAMA. Significantly, Ms. Odaba had been one of the trainers in 1995 when SCI first introduced solar cookers in Kakuma. Before the festival, 50 refugee women were trained to use the cookers, and they in turn trained the children. The festival took place at Hope Primary School in Kakuma Camp Four. During the festival, “Mama Solar” set up fifteen cookers and cooked a wide variety of food, including rice, vegetables chicken, eggs, cabbage, ugali, beans and cake. The children sat in neat rows as trainers handed out the cookers, cooking pots, food and water. Each child assembled their own cooker, and successfully cooked delicious noodles before an enthusiastic crowd of family members and relatives. The children were elated and proudly showed off their new cookers. Follow up studies are planned, and Roger Haines is working with a local entrepreneur to offer Haines-Copenhagen solar cookers for sale in Kakuma for a sustainable price of around $25 USD.