The government continues to implement various housing programmes across the country under the Affordable Housing Project (AHP), aimed at transforming the lives of urban poor populations who live in slums.
Speaking when he gave a report on the status of the projects during the National Government Development-County Implementation Coordination and Management Committee (NGD-CICMC) Meeting, the Uasin Gishu County Director for Housing and Urban Development, Edwin Chepsiror, said the housing project is one of the greatest pillars of the Kenya Kwanza government under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), which seeks to uplift the socio-economic status of vulnerable communities by offering them a decent living environment.
He said the government intends to upgrade the living environment for the expanding population in slum areas by moving them from temporary to more permanent and decent houses.
“We want to establish permanent two-roomed houses for each person, and the acquisition is under the tenant budget purchase scheme. In other words, we want to transfer the people in slum areas to more decent houses, but then what they are paying as rent can be used to acquire affordable houses,” said Chepsiror.
In the second approach, the Housing Director indicated that the government seeks to lessen the cost of acquiring a house for civil servants, where it has taken the initiative of building houses for them through the housing levy fund and also making the acquisition process much simpler compared to other forms of ownership.
“We are doing the four-category process, where we are building four typologies of houses: the studio, which is a modern single self-contained room, which will be sold at Sh 680,000, the 1-bedroom at Sh 1.5 million, the 2-bedrooms at Sh 1.980 million, and the 3-bedrooms at Sh2.880 million under the AHP,” added Chepsiror.
The Director urged the members of the public who may want to own a house under the housing project of the government to register at the Boma Yangu portal, choose the desirable housing plan, and pay the 10 per cent deposit and the balance through monthly installments up to 25 years.
The third housing plan, the Affordable Market-Based Housing Plan, will favour those who may want to buy houses, but because they don’t qualify under the AHP, they will buy those houses at market-based prices, for example, the 3 bedrooms will be sold at Sh5.6 million.
Chepsiror also indicated that the housing project has positively impacted the lives of local communities in terms of employment opportunities for casual and skilled labourers working on sites.
Additionally, the project will spur economic growth in terms of enabling people to open up businesses to serve the demand of the increasing population in urban centres, where the project takes place, and also ensure there is planned tenancy in towns.
Meanwhile, two housing projects are currently on course in Uasin Gishu, one in Kidiwa Estate, which sits on 2.5 acres of land and where the government is constructing 220 housing units of various typologies.
The project, which began in October 2023, is at 17 per cent completion and is expected to be complete by September this year.
“We are looking forward to extending the Kidiwa site to 50 acres to accommodate up to 10,000 units by 2027,” he added.
The next project at Pioneer Estate, Kapseret sub-county, with the G plus 9 plan is a 9-storey building, which under the initial plan was expected to have 1508 units, but the president proposed it to be adjusted to the G plus 16 plan, or a 1-storey building to accommodate up to 2300 houses.
The project, which was started in January this year, is at 2 per cent completion and is expected to be completed in two years, up to March 2026.
“The projects are of great benefit to our people in terms of those working on site and those supplying construction materials. Currently, 315 casuals, including 51 artisans, work at the Kidiwa affordable housing project, and 700, including 100 artisans, are working at the pioneer site,” alluded Chepsiror.
The Housing Director further noted that they intend to construct at least 220 housing units in each constituency in Uasin Gishu and that they are currently in the process of identifying sites to ensure the project covers all the sub-counties to contain the population pressure that may arise due to rural-urban migration.
By Ekuwam Sylvester
