Africa’s energy challenge is often reduced to a numbers game. How many homes have electricity, how many communities use clean cooking fuels, or how many megawatts have been added to the grid. But beneath these statistics lies a far more complex reality. Across the continent, millions continue to experience an energy system that is unequal, exclusionary, and unjust.

A new study published in Cambridge Prisms: Energy Transitions argues that the greatest obstacle to energy justice is not simply a lack of infrastructure, but a failure to understand the deeper systems that perpetuate inequality.

In the paper titled “Systematised Assessment of Energy Injustice in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Sarah Odera and Prof Izael Da Silva (Strathmore University), Dr. Jiska De Groot, together with Dr. Debbie Sparks (University of Cape Town) and Dr. Dimitrios Mentis (World Resources Institute)  challenge conventional thinking by looking beyond the symptoms of energy injustice to uncover its root causes. Rather than simply documenting where inequalities exist, the researchers develop a practical framework that enables policymakers, governments, development partners, and the private sector to identify why these injustices persist and how they can be addressed.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 600 million people still lack access to electricity, while approximately 970 million people continue to cook using unsafe and polluting fuels. Yet the researchers argue that statistics alone reveal only part of the story.

For years, studies have documented the region’s energy poverty, unreliable electricity supply, unaffordable tariffs, and dependence on biomass fuels. What has remained largely unexplored are the underlying systems that create and sustain these inequalities.

This new study fills that gap by conducting one of the most comprehensive systematised reviews of energy justice research undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on more than a decade of scholarly literature published between 2013 and 2025, the researchers identify recurring patterns of injustice across the entire energy value chain, including the extraction of critical minerals used in renewable technologies, access to energy services and disposal of electronic waste as well as cross cutting matters such as financing and governance of energy systems, community participation during the development of projects and programs,

The review uncovers persistent patterns of injustice throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Electricity access remains deeply unequal between urban and rural communities, while many households connected to the grid still struggle to afford electricity services or experience frequent outages. Off-grid technologies such as solar home systems have expanded access but offer limited energy services and in most cases cannot support productive use.

The study also highlights how policies intended to accelerate clean cooking transitions can unintentionally disadvantage low-income households by restricting access to firewood and charcoal without providing affordable alternatives.

Beyond access, the research examines the burdens borne by communities living near large energy infrastructure projects, where displacement, environmental degradation, and inadequate compensation frequently accompany development. It also draws attention to injustices associated with the mining of critical minerals essential for renewable technologies and the growing challenge of electronic waste disposal across the continent.

Equally significant are the governance challenges identified throughout the review. Limited community participation, unequal access to finance, power imbalances between donors and recipient countries, corruption, and weak institutional capacity all emerge as recurring barriers to achieving energy justice.

One of the study’s most significant contributions is its challenge to conventional thinking. Rather than viewing energy injustice as isolated failures or individual policy shortcomings, the researchers demonstrate that it emerges from complex interactions among communities, governments, utilities, private companies, development partners, and financial institutions.

Communities may struggle to access electricity because they cannot afford grid connection fees, while governments lack the financing to subsidize them. These community members may therefore have to depend on solar home systems for electricity access, which often break down before their intended lifetimes. Private companies, however, may be unable to guarantee product quality because regulatory institutions lack testing facilities or enforcement mechanisms.

Governments, on the other hand, lack the funding or technical capacity to install testing facilities or implement standards.  Meanwhile, donors’ funding conditions shape national energy priorities in ways that do not always align with local realities. The result is an interconnected web of constraints where no single stakeholder is entirely responsible, yet everyone is affected. This study therefore demonstrates that, energy injustice is rarely caused by one decision. It is produced by systems.

Perhaps the paper’s most important achievement is the introduction of a new analytical tool. The Energy Injustice in Stakeholder Interactions Framework. Unlike traditional approaches that simply identify victims and perpetrators, this framework maps how injustices flow between different stakeholders while simultaneously identifying the institutional, financial, technical, and political constraints that shape their actions.

In doing so, it enables researchers, policymakers, governments, development partners, and private sector actors to identify the root causes of injustice. Importantly, the framework also highlights the difficult trade-offs that often accompany energy policy. Expanding electricity access can enhance equity, but it may also place additional strain on already constrained public finances. Restricting biomass use may protect forests while making cooking more difficult for vulnerable households. Large renewable energy projects may reduce carbon emissions while displacing local communities. These realities, the researchers argue, demonstrate that energy justice cannot be pursued through simplistic solutions.

While firmly grounded in scholarship, the study is ultimately practical in its ambition. The authors argue that achieving energy justice requires more than expanding electricity infrastructure. It demands inclusive decision-making, stronger institutions, improved financing mechanisms, meaningful community engagement, robust quality standards, and policies that recognize the realities faced by different stakeholders.

Ultimately, Africa’s energy future cannot be judged solely by the number of homes connected to electricity. It must also be measured by whether those systems are fair, inclusive, affordable, and responsive to the people they are meant to serve. Through this work, the research team offers both a compelling diagnosis of the continent’s energy challenges and a practical pathway toward a more just energy future.

The publication further strengthens Strathmore University’s growing reputation as a leader in applied energy research that addresses some of Africa’s most pressing development challenges.

Article written by Stephen Wakhu