- Raila gave the president tips on affordable housing saying he needed to start with an a national conference.
- The Azimio boss said housing was in his manifesto, claming that Kenya Kwanza had stolen his idea.
Image: RAILA/X
Azimio leader Raila Odinga now says there is nothing wrong with the government's affordable housing plan but faults its design and implementation.
The ODM leader, who spoke during an interview with Meru-based Mwariama FM said he was the pioneer of affordable housing and slum upgrading programme.
He said while he served as minister for Roads, Transport, and Housing, he designed the country's housing strategy and introduced the programme after benchmarking abroad.
Raila said that he visited countries like Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore to understand how their housing programme works before the Narc government introduced affordable housing and slum upgrading programmes.
The opposition leader said that the vision he and fromer President Mwai Kibaki had for affordable housing was not to force people to pay and buy homes.
In some cases, Raila said, the government should allow Kenyans willing to buy houses to pay a deposit for a house instead of imposing taxes across the board.
He said the objective was to improve the housing standards of people living in informal settlements without loading heavy taxation or repayment plans on them.
"It was never about telling people to repay; where will they get that money?'' Raila said during the wide-ranging interview on Saturday.
Raila said the Kenya Kwanza government has failed to explain to Kenyans what it is all about before it is rolled out.
Discussing what he thinks has failed in the Kenya Kwanza affordable housing programme, Raila said the government has left Kenyans behind.
"Many people are protesting because most of them do not understand how they will benefit; they should even come up with convincing literature for Kenyans to read,'' he said.
At the same time, Raila said the government's programme should not be about building similar houses across the country but designing homes based on the various needs of regions and people.
"I brought about affordable housing and slum upgrading programme when I served as minister for housing in the Kibaki government. Affordable housing does not mean that you build same houses all over of one-size-fits-all,'' he said.
"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."
Raila said the government should have first held a major national conference on its change of policy on housing so that all Kenyans would understand what it was all about before it was rolled out.
"We needed a national conference like the one we had in Bomas during the Kibaki era in Kenya we want. When you bring something like this that will affect people's income, they must have trust that they will benefit,'' Raila explained.
President William Ruto has vowed that he is obligated by the Constitution to provide housing for the population and that he will push on with his affordable housing programme.
The 1.5 per cent levy on payslips has been halted by the court following cases filed by Kenyans.