By Samuel Otieno and Charity Nzomo in Kenya | 05 June 2022
| Español
Vasco Hamisi is hard at work checking on the solar panels at Okapi Green Energy Limited, in northwestern Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp. The Congolese refugee is the brains behind this outfit, which provides clean energy to 200 businesses inside and outside the camp, as well as many refugee households.
“I decided to go into green energy because when I came here, we were really struggling to get light. If you had a torch you would have to buy new batteries every week,” he says. “When I wake up every day, I feel that I need to make a positive contribution to the community that I’m living in.”
He arrived in Kakuma 12 years ago after fleeing fighting in his hometown in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He initially started a community-based organization to help find solutions to the camp’s…