Theorizing and learning from Kenya’s evolving solar energy enterprise development

A deeper, a more nuanced examination of Kenya’s solar energy enterprise development has the potential to generate new theoretical and practice insights into energy and sustainability transition process in a developing country context. Based on a review of energy/sustainability transition articles on Kenya, East Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa published in select energy, sustainability, and management journals, this article highlights four issues and questions related to Kenya’s solar energy enterprise development that represent fertile ground for further scholarly analysis. Firstly, how can transition policies be designed and developed with strong social and gender justice orientations? Secondly, how can market development be more effectively linked to the sustainable development of local communities? Thirdly, how can politics and power dynamics be better aligned with the transition process? Fourthly, how can the private sector work with greater collaboration with the public sector to achieve more integrated policy and market outcomes?