• On Sunday, Ruto commended Raila saying the opposition chief had finally acknowledged the housing project as a noble initiative.
• On Saturday, Raila claimed Kenya Kwanza stole the affordable housing initiative from Azimio but was implementing it wrongly through taxation.
Image: ANYANG NYONG'O/X
ODM leader Raila Odinga has denied endorsing President William Ruto's affordable housing initiative as a worthy cause.
In a statement via the party's X handle on Monday, Raila distanced himself and the entire Azimio coalition from the programme a day after Ruto said the former Prime Minister had given the initiative a nod of approval.
"Party Leader Raila Odinga, the ODM family and the entire Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition do not support the imposition of illegal taxes on Kenyans in the name of building Low-Cost Houses," the opposition party said.
"The media should be factual in their reporting and stop being sensational."
On Sunday, Ruto commended Raila saying the opposition chief had finally acknowledged the housing project as a noble initiative and called for an end to debate about the impugned housing levy.
The President who spoke during an interdenominational prayer service at the Approved School in Kakamega County said both Kenya Kwanza and Azimio had the affordable housing agenda in their manifestos.
He said had Azimio won the August polls and formed government, "they would have implemented it in their way, but since we (Kenya Kwanza) are the ones in power, we will implement it in our model".
"The former prime minister said that affordable housing is a very important thing and that is what I have been saying. What was the bickering about? The argument over this programme must stop now," the President said.
On Saturday, Raila claimed Kenya Kwanza stole the affordable housing initiative from Azimio but was implementing it wrongly through taxation.
In an interview with Mwariama FM, a Meru vernacular radio station, Raila said the government ought to have first sought to explain the initiative to Kenyans before rushing to implement it.
“The government should have first held a major national conference to make Kenyans understand its change of policy on housing and what it is all about before rolling it out,” Raila said.
The ODM boss also faulted the government's one-size-fits-all approach saying the houses should have been constructed based on the individual needs of households.
Raila said affordable housing does not mean building the same houses all over.
He said the home acquisition plan should have also been flexible where Kenyans willing to buy houses are allowed to do so as opposed to imposing taxes across the board.
"You can't have one design, in other areas you build bungalows, in some areas, residents provide land and labour while the government provides materials to improve their houses," he said.
According to Raila, the idea behind affordable housing is to upgrade living standards in informal settlements without loading the burden of the cost of construction on Kenyans through taxes.
He said he initiated a similar programme during his tenure as minister for housing in the Kibaki administration.
"It was never about telling people to repay; where will they get that money?" he posed.
Ruto has vowed to proceed with the affordable housing project despite courts having twice put a stop to the 1.5 per cent housing levy he imposed on salaried Kenyans to fund the project.
The President argues that the plan which seeks to construct 200,000 housing units per year will create employment opportunities for the youth, engineers, carpenters, masons, manufacturers quarry producers, architects, and transporters among others.