- The government has identified and designated some 575 pieces of land of about 12,000 acres to implement the projects
- The government seeks to build at least 200,000 housing units every year to bridge the housing gap and provide employment for the youth
Image: PCS
More demolitions are set to take place across the country as the government seeks to create space for the construction of affordable houses.
Lands and Housing Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome on Wednesday said the government has identified and designated some 575 pieces of land of about 12,000 acres to implement the projects.
Some of the parcels are currently hosting old estates – owned by both the national and county governments – which will be brought down.
Some demolitions are currently underway.
While answering questions at the Senate, Wahome said of the 575 parcels, 62 parcels of 780 acres have been identified in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru counties.
Wahome said the parcels were submitted by ministries, counties, departments, authorities and MPs forming the land bank for the affordable housing programme.
“Not all the identified parcels will necessarily be used for Affordable Housing programme as some of them are not potential sites and do not meet the criteria for potential projects. These lands will however be retained in the land bank for future consideration,” she said.
Wahome was responding to Marsabit Senator Mohammed Chute’s question who wanted to know the value of each parcel of government-owned land designated for the project
The government seeks to build at least 200,000 housing units every year to bridge the housing gap and provide employment for the youth.
The CS said the state is strictly adhering to procurement laws to procure investors to develop the houses
The procurement is done under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act.
“The terms are mutually negotiated and agreed among the parties. Each project has a contract document that is mutually agreed upon by the developer and client before the development commences,” Wahome said.
While she admitted that the houses will be built on public land, the parcels will not be transferrable or transferred to the developer.
According to Wahome, the contracts are executed under the Sustainability Procurement Portfolio Methodology, which enables the developers to be on boarded as strategic partners and thereby qualifying for the incentives.
“The project seeks to benefit the end buyers and is aimed at increasing home ownership,” she said.
Already, the ministry has completed the development of two projects in Park Road, Nairobi county and Bondeni, Nakuru county while development on seven parcels are currently ongoing on 116.5 acres of land in Nairobi and Nakuru counties.
The Park Road Housing Project in Starehe constituency is the first Affordable Housing flagship project.
It sits on a 7.9 acres and has 1,370 affordable housing units.
The project has 84 one-bedroom units, 480 two-bedroom units and 806 three-bedroom units.
The Bondeni project 605 housing units comprising of 45 one-bedroom units, 180 two-bedroom units and 380 three-bedroom units.
Wahome said there are seven ongoing projects in Nairobi and Nakuru counties.
Mombasa and Kisumu counties have no ongoing projects but there are planned under consideration.
There is a project in Kibera Soweto East Zone B Housing Project which consists of 4,054 housing units comprising of 1,740 one-room units, 1,690 two- room units, and 624 three-room units.
Amenities within the development include, a primary school, a kindergarten, commercial space and health centre, recreational facilities, boreholes, floodlights, internal access roads among others.
In Shauri Moyo-Kamkunji constituency in Nairobi, the project consists of 4,556 housing units comprising of 348 studios, 696 one-bedroom units, 2,104 two-bedroom units and 1,408 three-bedroom units. It sits on 22 acres.
Mukuru Met Site housing project consists of 13,076 housing units under 3 Lots. Lot 1 has 5,616 Bedsitters, Lot 2 has 3,024 one-bedroom house units and Lot 3, which has 4,608 two-bedroom units.