Severe energy poverty in humanitarian conditions undermines the food security of refugees and host community members. Northern Kenya’s arid climate makes implementing conventional rain-fed agriculture difficult. This area is therefore mainly inhabited by pastoralists. At the same time, the area hosts refugees who have migrated from their homes due to conflicts and famine. The arrival of refugees exerts pressure on the already fragile natural resources in the host communities. Often the donor agencies provide food aid through the provision of grain and cooking oil to refugees. Where fuel is provided, it meets about 10 % of the cooking energy need (Njenga et al., 2015). Thus, a huge deficit of cooking energy exists, which is another aspect of food insecurity and a humanitarian challenge in refugee camps. For example, surveys at one camp – Daadab, the largest in northeastern Kenya – show that 98 % of households use firewood as their main cooking fuel and spend 24 % of their monthly income of USD 72 on energy (Okello, 2016). At the Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, households live below the poverty line of USD 1.25 per day and spend about 15 % of their income on firewood, charcoal and other forms of cooking energy (Kivuva, 2016). At Kalobeyei, an emerging refugee settlement set up in the last 1.5 years on the outskirts of Kakuma camp, the majority of refugees are forced by circumstances to exchange or sell five days of relief food in return for three days of firewood for cooking food (Mendum and Njenga, 2018).Host communities are also faced with food scarcity and similarly skip meals or go hungry for days (Njenga et al., 2015). Desperate to put cooked food on the table for their families, women in refugee camps, as well as those from the host communities, are forced to go to the surrounding woodlands to collect firewood. This is an activity that is exhausting, life-threatening and associated with conflict between the refugee and host communities over wood resources (UN-Habitat, 2017).Unfortunately, the technologies they employ are inefficient (Njenga et al., 2015). These include kilns that waste wood, cause air pollution and lead to land degradation. For example, traditional kilns take many days to produce saleable charcoal, and the amounts produced are about 10 % of the total raw materials (Okello et al., 2001). Urgent interventions are needed to overcome energy poverty, which is deeply associated with food insecurity, unsustainable resource use and risks to women’s welfare in the refugee camp environment.