The 500,000 Kenyans hoping to occupy the first batch of affordable housing projects will have to wait until April 2025 instead of the projected December 2024 to enjoy their new abodes.According to Lands Cabinet Secretary (CS) Alice Wahome, this unforeseen delay is due to a flurry of court cases and litigation opposing the Housing Levy.Speaking during a tour of the Mukuru Kwa Njenga Social affordable housing projects on Saturday, Wahome added that even though only 200,000 units would be available by April, 500,000 Kenyans had already expressed interest in the projects.”At the end of April, we will have people living here. We are hoping that we will be able to complete the remaining units in the next 60 days,” she stated.
Lands Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome during the launch of Ardhi Sasa system in Murang’a County on July 8, 2024.
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Alice Wahome
“Our targets are slightly behind schedule because we intended to have 200,000 within the first year but of course you know the challenges we faced of court cases, litigation, and uncertainty on whether the court would stop the funding.”In September this year, the government announced that 99 percent of the housing units were already completed and tenants would be moving in by December.At the time, State Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Eng. Benjamin Njenga believed the last touches would be done on time for residents to move in in three months.“The five blocks are ready and we anticipate that by December, we will be giving out the units to the people of Mukuru. What is remaining is the installation of lifts which the State Department has already procured,” he said at the time.The Mukuru project kicked off in 2022 along the Enterprise Road in the Industrial Area as part of President William Ruto’s plan to construct 100,000 housing units to curb informal settlement and create jobs for unemployed youth.It sits on 56 acres of land and is set to have 26 block bedsitters, 14 block one-bedroom units, and 14 block two-bedroom units each costing Ksh3,000, Ksh4,000, and Ksh5,000 respectively.The project, which is part of the government’s Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), has reportedly employed 160,000 Kenyans so far.So far, the Mukuru Project is said to have cost Ksh7 billion acquired from the housing fund.
On October 22, a three-judge bench comprising Justices; Olga Sewe, John Chigiti, and Josephine Mong’are found that adequate public participation was conducted and due process was followed when establishing the fund after six cases were filed at the courts challenging the levy’s legality.
President William Ruto and former DP Rigathi Gachagua laid the stone for the building of affordable houses in Nanyuki on January 10, 2024.
William Ruto
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