Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.The government should have left the affordable housing programme to the private sector for it to achieve its envisioned goal of providing decent homes for Kenyans, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has said.
Affordable housing is a key pillar of President William Ruto’s manifesto, which requires every salaried Kenyan to contribute 1.5 per cent of their monthly gross pay towards its realization.
The programme is in multiple phases, including complete projects, ongoing constructions and new projects.
Despite it being mandatory to make contributions, one can only be allocated a house upon registering on Boma Yangu, make a deposit and wait for allocation of the booked unit via lottery.
Speaking on Thursday during a TikTok live interview, Gachagua said the affordable housing programme is not a priority for the majority of Kenyans, terming it a private sector initiative where one who wants a house should be at liberty to decide when and how to put up one.
“We should leave people to put up their own houses, we should spend all our resources in putting up the necessary infrastructure - roads, water, electricity, sewage - and then people can create houses themselves,” he said.
He questioned how the end goal of access to decent housing for contributing Kenyans would be achieved if payment wasn’t a guarantee of ownership.
Gachagua said this is because the houses are constructed on government land, paid for by taxes collected from working Kenyans but sold only to those with the means to afford it.
“So you wonder where is the benefit to the public?” he asked.
“The honourable Mwai Kibaki opened up bypasses and the houses came up on their own - private sector initiative,” he added.
Gachagua said since the already constructed houses cannot be brought down, successive administrations should purpose to ensure that the houses are available to target groups such as mama mboga as it focuses on developing infrastructure to support the private sector to build houses.
“It’s a very private thing, you put up your house according to your needs, people want other services from the government, roads, water, electricity, sewage, security and a good environment to do business.”