President William Ruto has announced his radical changes to transform Kibera from a slum to an estate.
Speaking on Sunday while attending a service at Deliverance Church International, Lang’ata, Nairobi, Ruto said Kibera will be an estate in the next 10 years.
“Hii Kibera iko hapa na zile slums ziko Nairobi, in ten years there will be no slum in that area. We will have changed it to be an estate. And God will help us to make it possible,” Ruto said.
According to Ruto, the aim of the Housing Project is to remove people from slums and shift them to respectable living spaces.
“The housing project only has two aims, It's not just to build more houses but to create more employment opportunities,” he said.
“That is why we really pushed on the housing fund. People complained about it but they will later come to realize that it is a very good thing.”
He affirmed that the project where the government seeks to construct 200,000 houses in the next five years, will create jobs for the youths.
“It will help youths get jobs, Kenyans will get houses and live in respectable places where there is water, electricity and roads. As for now we have about 6 million Kenyans living in slums and we must be concerned about them,” he said.
During the inspection of the Mukuru affordable housing project, the President noted that 70,000 units are at advanced stages of construction across the country.
The housing programme was allocated Sh35.2 billion.
In June, Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung' u in his budget proposals said that the government mobilised resources to support the construction of affordable housing units and social housing units.
He announced part of the housing budget, Sh3.2 billion to go towards the affordable housing programme.
This is in line with President Ruto's plans to deliver 200,000 affordable housing units annually to Kenyans.
" To achieve the delivering of 250,000 housing units yearly and to ensure this initiative is a success, I propose the national assembly to effect the budget allocation of 35.2 billion for the housing programme," Ndung'u said.