Housing PS Hinga defends enactment of housing levy, says it is benefiting Kenyans

Housing Principal Secretary (PS) Charles Hinga has defended the enactment of the housing development levy, contained in the Finance Act 2023, saying it is helping the government build houses en masse, provide employment for youth as well as support the local manufacturing industry.

Speaking in Mombasa on Thursday during the 2023 Kenya Affordable Housing Conference 2023, Hinga underscored that housing is a social right, and the current deficit is occasioned by the fact that the Government exited from implementing the housing agenda and left it to the private sector.

“We can disagree on how to solve the Housing problem but we must first agree there is a problem. We have a very unequal Country. A society that has low income against high land value," said Hinga.

"This pushes people to slums. If the government doesn’t intervene informal settlements will continue to mushroom."

Hinga further asserted that the housing levy has allowed the government has come up with interventions such as zero rating the cost of land and infrastructure as well as reducing the cost of financing to ensure the housing units are affordable.

"So far 584 units have been completed while 9,477 units inherited from the 2018-2022 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) cycle are ongoing," he said.

"The Kenya Kwanza Government has launched the construction of 39,879 units in this cycle and another 34,355 units are ready for groundbreaking."

He added that Kenyans living in informal settlements have no access to decent sanitation and therefore pay to use a toilet.

"We have 1,141 slums in the Country whose occupants pay 172% more for water and over 45% more for electricity than other Kenyans," said Hinga.