This research project examines Appropriate Technology (AT), which has been popularised in Kenya for well over thirty years apparently without meeting the desired results of exponential increase in uptake of its products among the target population. It first examines the rationale and need for AT in construction generally and in Kenya in particular. It then looks at the prevalence of factors that have contributed to the adoption of the technology on the one hand and those that have inhibited its growth on the other hand.

The study utilizes the Compressed Stabilised Earth Blocks (CSEB), one of the best-known products of AT locally to demonstrate the kind of challenges the technology has encountered in the Kenyan context. It discusses literature pertaining to the materials under study starting from the global to the local context, giving an understanding of the material itself and its merits and demerits. The literature also gives a pointer as to the likely areas to be examined in the local context to be able to pinpoint weak points to sustained growth in the use of CSEB.