Izael Da Silva; Edward Baleke Ssekulima - International conference Towards sustainable energy solutions for the developing world ; To date, insufficient attention has been afforded to the design and energy performance of Institutional buildings in East Africa. As a result most Institutional buildings in the region do not incorporate the issue of energy efficiency at the design, construction and utilization stages. Institutions are amongst the major consumers of energy in any country most of which is utilized within buildings, thus a thorough critique of the building envelope is necessary to reduce energy wastage within them. The aim of this paper is to present findings of the comparative study carried out on Institutional buildings at Strathmore University-Nairobi, Kenya and Makerere University-Kampala, Uganda. The study mainly considered the effect of building envelope designs and orientation to the energy consumption of the buildings. ECOTECT, a Building energy performance analysis tool was employed to quantify the effect of both the conventional and Energy Efficient Building Envelopes to the overall energy consumption of the buildings. The research findings show that the overall energy consumption of Institutional buildings could easily be reduced by about 40% through the design of envelopes suited to the micro-climate of the particular site, proper selection of construction materials vis-a-vis their thermal performance, extensive use of day-lighting, wise utilization of water and good building waste management systems as well as utilization of Energy Efficient Appliances within the building. The study also revealed that integration of a Building Management System would significantly reduce resource utilization within the building. ; To date, insufficient attention has been afforded to the design and energy performance of Institutional buildings in East Africa. As a result most Institutional buildings in the region do not incorporate the issue of energy efficiency at the design, construction and utilization stages. Institutions are amongst the major consumers of energy in any country most of which is utilized within buildings, thus a thorough critique of the building envelope is necessary to reduce energy wastage within them. The aim of this paper is to present findings of the comparative study carried out on Institutional buildings at Strathmore UniversityNairobi, Kenya and Makerere University-Kampala, Uganda. The study mainly considered the effect of building envelope designs and orientation to the energy consumption of the buildings. ECOTECT, a Building energy performance analysis tool was employed to quantify the effect of both the conventional and Energy Efficient Building Envelopes to the overall energy consumption of the buildings. The research findings show that the overall energy consumption of Institutional buildings could easily be reduced by about 40% through the design of envelopes suited to the micro-climate of the particular site, proper selection of construction materials vis-avis their thermal performance, extensive use of daylighting, wise utilization of water and good building waste management systems as well as utilization of Energy Efficient Appliances within the building. The study also revealed that integration of a Building Management System would significantly reduce resource utilization within the building.