The Cabinet Secretary (CS) of the Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development Alice Wahome has affirmed the government’s commitment to build 250,000 low-cost housing units every year through the Affordable Housing Programme (AHP).
Wahome made the remarks on Wednesday when she opened the fifth edition of the National Construction Authority (NCA) premier biennial event, the International Construction Research Conference and Exhibition (ICoRCE) in Mombasa.
ICoRCE is central to developing and disseminating research works in the construction industry.
The three-day conference, themed “Leveraging on the Potential of MSMEs and Technology for a Resilient and Sustainable Construction Industry,” supports implementing and monitoring the National Construction Research Agenda (NaCRA), focusing on strategic industry challenges.
CS Wahome recalled that when the Kenya Kwanza government took the reins of power in 2022, there were about 9000 housing units ongoing that are now in the final touches.
“Since then I have ongoing construction of about 75,000 units in different stages. I am working on procurement of another 60,000 units. Some have gone for tendering others we have finalized the evaluation, so that when I do my total numbers, I am talking of almost 145,000 units,” she stated.
The AHP has employed over 160,000 construction workers and contractors. The architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and other professionals have been directly engaged in the significant program.
“Our target for 200,000 units is likely to be achieved by about February within the year. We are funding our work from the Affordable Housing levy. The amount we are collecting so far is about Sh63-65B per year. It is a space that we should encourage and support,” she said.
The programme is so far in 40 counties and plans are underway to extend to the remaining seven counties. The government intends to have all 290 constituencies have at least a minimum of 220 units.
“Overall, within maybe the next three years, we should be able to achieve about 800,000 units. Our target is a million but we also have private investors working in the same space,” divulged the CS.
She added that they wanted a situation where the private sector is complementing the government in the housing programme. To achieve this, the government is supporting the private sector with incentives like “waiver of unnecessary taxes and duties to bring down the cost”.
The CS further revealed that demand for the houses is high with 545,000 applications received in the Boma Yangu Platform for the Affordable Housing.
The number, she noted was expected to double once the allocation of the houses starts. The Ministry is finalizing works for the platform to allocate the houses, pricing, the number of units and the specific project where ones buy.
The CS stated that the recently launched National Building Code 2024 provided for building standards that support the development of climate-resilient infrastructure.
The code incorporates measures to address the impacts of climate change, ensuring that infrastructure projects are designed and constructed to withstand climate-related stresses, with the inclusion of hazard maps in the code enhancing the assessment of climate risks in the design and construction of infrastructure.
“The building code embraces the green building standards in various aspects therefore enhancing the sustainability of the built environment,” she stated.
The Engineers, Surveyors, Architects and Constructors were challenged to review the benefits, drivers, barriers and strategies that could enhance the implementation of Smart Contracts (SCs) in construction.
“On-time delivery of documentation and contracts has been recognized as a crucial requirement for the successful delivery of projects. However, the construction industry still depends on time-consuming traditional contract processes, which negatively affect the overall productivity of projects in the industry,” said the CS.
“The use of SCs is highlighted as a suitable novel technology to expedite the contract processes and establish a reliable payment environment in the construction industry. Whilst there has been an increase in the debate about the use of SCs in construction in recent years, their use in practice still seems to be in its infancy,” she added.
The construction stakeholders were advised to build climate-resilient infrastructure to withstand and adapt to climate-related challenges thus minimizing the potential for significant disruptions and economic losses, and ensuring long-term viability for infrastructures.
They were also encouraged to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) which has the potential to bring fundamental change and innovation in the construction process.
“The potential of AI presents new challenges to the construction sector in areas such as architectural design, engineering design, and building services. It is important to analyze AI methods with the possibility of combining them with the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies,” said CS Wahome.
The CS was accompanied by the Principal Secretaries for State Departments for Public Works and SMES Development Joel Arumonyang and Susan Mang’eni respectively.
By Sadik Hassan
