Murang’a residents have been urged to construct their homes using interlocking blocks, which are cheaper and can boost the housing sector in rural areas.
Housing director Wilson Irungu has said the blocks are made from a mixture of soil and minimal cement to make them long-lasting. He said technology eases the process of constructing a house as it is fast and the materials required are readily available.
It has the capacity to eradicate homelessness and assist the government in its bid to improve housing as part of the Big 4 Agenda.
Irungu said his department partnered with the county government to acquire machines and materials to make the blocks.
Residents will only be required to liaise with the housing department to be facilitated with the machines.
Irungu said 20 youths are being trained at Makomboki Vocational Training Centre in Kigumo subcounty, out of whom eight are drawn from the Kazi Mtaani programme.
Speaking at the institution on Tuesday, the director said after the youths are fully trained, they will be engaged in the construction of houses and local administration offices.
“The first project is the construction of a workshop in the institution after which they will construct the local chief’s office and a toilet block. Thereafter, they will be ready to be engaged by locals to build their homes,” Irungu said.
“This technology will help many families get permanent and decent housing, and we will continue to train more youths."
Irungu said the youths engaged from the Kazi Mtaani programme will construct houses in their villages besides engaging in other chores such as bush-clearing, unblocking of drainage and improving access roads.
“We will continue to train more youths from the programme so that they can employ themselves after the programme is concluded,” Irungu said.
He further appealed to cohorts that have not received their pay in the Kazi Mtaani programme to be calm as their payment is being processed.
The delayed pay, he said, resulted from mismatching identity card numbers and phone numbers given by the youths.
“We have liaised with Safaricom to clean up the details which we have sent back to Nairobi for their pay to be processed,” he added.
About 4,393 youths have been engaged in the programme in the county, out of whom 241 had payment hitches.
Makomboki Vocational Training Centre manager Wilfred Mutuma said the youths being trained are able to make 1,000 blocks every day.
He said the programme has proved to be much cheaper and faster and will transform the lives of the youths and villages.
Belly Njuguna, one of the youths undergoing training, said she is a second-year student at Embu University and that she chose to take advantage of the programme to keep herself busy while gaining skills.
She said she will be making income by the time schools re-open in January next year.
Edited by R.Wamochie
