State House has refuted reports that there is a low up take of housing units built under the Affordable Housing Programme.
In a statement, State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohammed said the media report was anchored on a report of Auditor General that focused on projects that were designed and launched before President William Ruto assumed office in September 2022.
A local daily claimed that government agencies are allegedly stuck with stocks of unsold units.
“The story is not only mischievous but also deliberately misleading,” Mohammed said.
He said none of the housing projects listed in the report fall under the Affordable Housing Programme (AHP).
Mohammed said the report overlooked the fact that the Affordable Housing Programme was designed differently from previous housing projects.
He said Ruto's housing project has specific policy interventions to lower the costs of housing significantly to ensure affordability for ordinary Kenyans.
The interventions, he said, include access to public land, provision of free last-mile services like sewerage, electricity, water and internet and exemption of all construction inputs under AHP from value-added tax (VAT).
“These interventions have enabled the National Housing Corporation (NHC), as one of the implementing agencies of the AHP, to sell units at between Sh1 million to Sh3 million, compared to the previous high of between Sh7 million and Sh8 million,” he explained.
Contrary to the assertions, Mohamed said, the uptake for units under AHP is exceptionally high.
“For example, the government demolished 39 units of old houses in Park Road, Nairobi, and replaced them with 1,370 affordable units, all of which were sold out within 90 days,” he stated.
“To illustrate the huge demand for affordable housing, when half of the 1,370 units at Park Road were offered to members of the public, over 33,000 Kenyans paid deposits of at least 10 per cent.”
Mohammed added that most of those who missed out have not asked for a refund of their money and are instead waiting to be allocated other units under the AHP.
“In a nutshell, we do not have a demand problem for the Affordable Housing Programme,” he affirmed.
He noted that since September 2022, 103,000 affordable housing units have been launched and are in various stages of construction across the country.
