What might kill Ruto’s housing plan

When former President Uhuru Kenyatta took office, he unveiled an elaborate plan to put up at least 500,000 housing units by August 2022.

As a key pillar of his legacy-driven Big Four Agenda projects — which included universal healthcare, manufacturing, food security — affordable housing, was, however, not achieved as planned.

The Uhuru government only managed to deliver about 50,000 units, a year after the project was marred by lack of funding and court cases of lands set aside for affordable houses.

Fast forward to 2023 -with President William Ruto, who also deputised Mr Kenyatta during his 10-year reign, the goal is to deliver 200,000 housing units annually, an ambitious project, that will heavily rely on counties’ backing and how attractive the private sector will see the business environment.

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However, the former Jubilee government ghosts seem to have now come back to haunt President Ruto’s ambitious project.

The projects, which has been launched in some counties, is now facing major hurdles, including land grabbing and land disputes.

But before then, and like his predecessor, the Ruto housing plan is facing a problem in meeting set targets.

Only 40,000 housing units and 120,000 jobs had been realised with just six months left to the end of the project phase, against a target of 250,000 houses and one million jobs.

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But, whereas the government is determined to secure land for the ambitious projects, some of the long-running land disputes may derail delivery of the cheap houses.

Some of the counties where parcels of land meant for the affordable housing projects are disputed include; Kericho, Kisii, Nairobi, Nakuru, Lamu, Mombasa, Narok, among others.

The headache of vicious litigation in courts, is among stumbling blocks President William Ruto’s administration is staring at.

Other challenges are huge pieces of government land that do not have title deeds with the majority of the public land being illegally owned by individuals.

“Land litigation in court is one of the setbacks fronting the realisation of the affordable housing projects at the county levels. The national and county governments must seek alternative methods to resolve most of the cases out of court to enable the projects to take off,” lawyer Steve Kabita told the Saturday Nation.

“The ministry must also work closely with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and other relevant government institutions, to solve the thorny issue of land grabbing and illegal allocation of public land in various counties, to give way for the projects, “added Mr Kabita.

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In Kericho County for instance, the construction of 10,000 housing units hangs in the balance after a group of squatters claimed a parcel of land at Kevoko Chelimo earmarked for the project.

The Borowo clan, led by its chairman Richard Langat, has threatened to move to court to block the county government from taking over the land.

According to the clansmen, they were evicted from their ancestral land to create space for multinational tea estates.

They say the government must consult the community first on land compensation before carrying out the housing project.

In Nakuru County, an ambitious Sh2 billion Affordable Housing Project in Naivasha, funded by the World Bank, ran into headwinds after a private developer laid claim to the land where the project was to be constructed.

The project that was to deliver 2,400 houses was to be built on a 55 acre -land on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway, sandwiched between the Naivasha GK prison and the Panda Flower Park.

The land grabbing menace has also hindered expansion of county infrastructure and impeded other key national and county development projects.

In Kisii County, suspected grabbers of land meant for the affordable housing project have reportedly used the public property, to secure loans from local banks in the county, amounting to over Sh11 million.

The launch of the affordable housing project in the county is now at risk of being delayed, or worse, never taking off, if the al-leged grabbers decide to fight back through the legal system.

According to letters from the County Lands Office and investigating officers seen by the Nation, the alleged land grabbers and private companies processed documents and transferred the public land into their private ownership and later used the properties as collateral to take out loans running into millions of shillings.

The government says the influential people allegedly used their positions to grab the land. They then subdivided the parcel into 81 plots, some of which were sold to unsuspecting developers.

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The alleged grabbers have been identified as former civic leaders of the defunct Kisii Municipal Council and those who served in the previous county regime.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has already swung into action following the government’s discovery of the grabbing of the land at Nyanchwa Estate in Kisii County, to investigate how the individuals managed to transfer government property into private hands.

In the neighbouring Narok County, the affordable housing project faces headwinds, after a section of Maasai land rights activists opposed a plan to hive off 200 acres for establishment of the cheap houses.

Led by Mr Meitamei Ololdapash,the activists who have threatened to move to court, to oppose use of the land for the project, say public participation has not yet been conducted, maintaining that no one has a right to arbitrarily allocate community land, that belongs to the Purko clan, to the national government.

In Coastal Counties like Lamu, Taita Taveta, Kilifi and others, the government will have to seek quick and amicable solutions to land management issues emanating from land grabbing, landlessness and squatters.

“The county and national governments must resolve the land issues in Lamu to allow for the building of 3,000 affordable housing units in the region,” said a resident, Juma Ngao.

In Nairobi County, the construction of affordable houses in Kibra is in limbo after some of the Nubian community members opposed the idea of leasing their own land.

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The Nubian rights forum, a lobby championing the interests of the minority community, has sought a court injunction to stop the project, claiming it is seeking to take their land away from them unfairly.

Ruto broke the ground for the slum upgrading project in October last year.

The new headache comes after the government faced a court battle over the implementation of the housing levy, through the already enacted Finance Act, 2023.

The housing project has in the past months faced opposition, after various entities piled criticism on the housing levy law that paved the way for Kenyans to contribute three percent of their income, matched by their employers to enable them own homes under the Affordable Housing Programme.

From the housing levy, the government plans to collect over Sh73 billion annually, to enable the construction of over 200,000 affordable housing units every year across the country.

Through the already enacted Finance Act 2023, the State has capped a 1.5 percent employee contribution, matched with an equal contribution from the employer towards the ambitious housing plan.

According to Housing Principal Secretary (PS) Charles Hinga, the housing plan is a key priority project that will provide decent houses to Kenyans at an affordable payment plan as well as creating millions of job opportunities to the youths, Jua-Kali sector and small and medium enterprises.

However, the ambitious project faces a fresh headache.

“The government will have to deal with land grabbers, resolve land disputes, before they use some controversial parcels of land. The Ministry of Lands has a lot of work to do to ensure the land controversies do not derail President William Ruto’s ambitious development agenda for the people of Kenya,” Mr David Kimani, a governance expert told the Saturday Nation.

Previously, former Lands Cabinet Secretary Zachary Njeru revealed that the ministry was working to resolve the pending policies and legislations, as well as lack of title deeds for public lands, that are derailing the government’s development agenda.

President Ruto, while launching housing units by a private developer in Ongata Rongai, Kajiado County recently, said his administration was drafting a programme that will rope in the private sector and county governments on developing affordable houses.

The programme will also detail how finances will be made available for Kenyans to access mortgages.

President Ruto asked governors to release land for the construction of the units saying the national government will use its financial muscle to add amenities like water, sewage and roads.

Three months ago, the Senate standing committee on roads, transportation and housing raised concerns over delays by some county governments in approving the affordable housing projects, which they said could derail their implementation.

The Senators noted that the delays if not addressed on time risk stalling the State’s affordable housing agenda and denying thousands of Kenyans a chance to own decent houses.

The Senators spoke in Naivasha during an engagement with Mr Hinga, the Housing PS.

Led by the committee chairperson Karungo wa Thangwa, they called on the county governors to facilitate seamless approval of the projects upon request to ensure the projects’ success.

On December 13, President Ruto, wearing a brave face, vowed to push on with the project which has faced opposition.