NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 20- Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga expects the Affordable Housing Program to generate Sh78 billion in a financial year after it was signed into law by President William Ruto yesterday.
Hinga announced in an interview with Spice FM on Wednesday that they have collected Sh32 billion under the initiative so far.
“We have projects ongoing and so the 2billion used has been paying for those projects,” Hinga said.
“We have awarded 19 projects across the country, and therefore that money is covered the ongoing works in these projects. The money is still there,” he stated.
He assured Kenyans that the money will be used to construct houses and social infrastructure like schools, clinics, and hospitals where affordable houses will be built.
“We are making sure that we build schools within five minutes walking distance. And how we are doing it is that we will consider first if there is a school already and have land, we will go there and add 10 more classrooms to ensure they accommodate all the children around there,” he said.
“We will also check if there is a level three hospital, we upgrade it to a level five hospital and we are working with the county on these amenities because it is their function, also physical infrastructure like roads, water and electricity.”
On March 19, 2024, President Ruto assented to the Affordable Housing Law, paving the way for the reinstatement of housing levy deductions.
This means the 1.5 percent tax on both the employer and the employee will take effect at the end of the month.
The legislation, which received approval from both the Senate and the National Assembly last week, includes amendments that involve the participation of county governments.
Under the new provisions, governors will establish county liaison committees tasked with overseeing the implementation of the affordable housing program.
