Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga now says Kenyans living in informal settlements have no access to decent sanitation and end up paying to use toilets.
Speaking during the Kenya Affordable Housing Conference 2023 organised by the Kenya Mortgage Refinancing Company, Mombasa County, Hinga noted that the country has 141 slums whose occupants pay 172% more for water and over 45% more for electricity than other Kenyans.
According to the Housing PS, the current deficit has been occasioned by the fact that the Government exited from implementing the housing agenda and left it to the private sector.
“We can disagree on how to solve the Housing problem but we must first agree there is a problem. We have a very unequal Country. A society that has low income against high land value. This pushes people to slums. If the Government doesn’t intervene, informal settlements will continue to mushroom,” remarked Hinga.
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Hinga mentioned that the Housing levy is helping the Government build houses en masse, provide employment for the youth and women as well as support the manufacturing sector through the engagement of Jua Kali groups
The Government has come up with various interventions to ensure the housing units are affordable.
They include zero rating the cost of land and infrastructure, multiple tax exemptions as well as reducing the cost of financing.
So far 584 units have been completed while 9,477 units inherited from the 2018-2022 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) cycle are ongoing.
The Kenya Kwanza Government has launched the construction of 39,879 units in this cycle and another 34,355 units are ready for groundbreaking.
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