City's 3,000 acres to be set aside for affordable housing

Atleast 3,000 acres of Nairobi public land will be used for the affordable housing programme.

President William Ruto on Monday said his administration will prioritise the project to provide residents with affordable homes.

“We are going to work with the Nairobi county government and all the other agencies so that these 3,000 acres, we can at least do between 400,000 and 500,000 housing units that will support the people of Nairobi, as we do it elsewhere,” he said.

The National Treasury allocated the affordable housing programme a budget of Sh27.2 billion in the current financial year.

At the start of his second term, former  President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the Big 4 Agenda, which included the construction of some 500,000 affordable housing units.

Nairobi is at the centre of this project, and Ruto has shown keen interest in continuing where his former boss left.

As of September 28, last year, at least 2,235 affordable housing units had been occupied and construction was underway on many others, but nothing close to 500,000.  

Among the occupied units, 1,730 are at Park Road in Ngara, 250 in the Kisumu civil servants housing project, 152 in Machakos and 463 in Mavoko.

Nairobi currently  has four ongoing projects for 21,642 units

Pangani Housing Project which is being undertaken by the Nairobi Metropolitan Service is yet to be completed.

Once done, it will deliver 1,562 housing units from the land previously occupied by 48 tenants

Also, the government is on course to set up 5,280 units at Clay City in Nairobi and Sh850 million housing project in Kasarani that will see 284 units constructed.

Construction is ongoing at the Jevanjee estates formally known as Bachelor quarters. 1,900 units will be developed from land that was previously occupied by 81 houses.

Residents living in Mukuru will pay a mortgage between 10-20 years for Sh3,000 per month once the government completes the Mukuru Social Housing Project.

The Sh15 billion project will see the set up of 13,000 units.

President Ruto inspected the project on Monday where he said the bedsitters will charge at the aforementioned amount, one bedroom unit will be paid Sh5,000 and two bedrooms will go for Sh6,500 per month.

He presided over the ground-breaking ceremony for the affordable housing project in the area.

“Last time I went to Mukuru, I told them we will change the rent they pay to mortgage,” he added.

Ruto said Mukuru Kwa Rueben residents will pay mortgages for the next 20 years, to own houses under the social housing project.

He said it was unfair that the residents have to pay more for water and electricity than any other part of the city, even though they are at the "bottom".

“So the priority of this project is to get the people living in Mukuru to come and live here,” he said.

“The Sh3,000 rent is the same that they will pay for a mortgage.”

Edited by Kiilu Damaris