What Mukuru residents will pay for new affordable houses - PS Hinga breaks it down

Over 1,000 residents of Mukuru Kwa Njenga who have moved into newly built affordable housing units will pay a total of Ksh.3,000 per month under a government rent-to-own arrangement.

According to Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga, the payments are structured to match what many of the residents were already paying in informal settlements, but now with the benefit of owning the units over time.

“They will pay Ksh.2,800 per month, but it is not rent…it is rent-to-own,” said PS Hinga during an interview on Citizen TV’s JKLIve show on Wednesday night.

The PS explained that the payment includes a Ksh.1,000 service charge, which is already heavily subsidized, and an additional Ksh.200 for insurance.

“Through this housing programme, there’s quite a number of subsidies, because for example in there, the service charge should be about Ksh.3,000 per month; which is already more than what they will pay,” said Hinga.

“And because these are the most vulnerable in our society, government steps in and provides a subsidy of Ksh.2,000, and they only pay Ksh.1,000. And then they will also pay Ksh.200 for insurance, which is important because should anything happen to you, there is a life cover and tenure of security.”

President William Ruto on Tuesday officially handed over thefirst set of 1,080 units in the Mukuru Affordable Housing project, with the majority of the units being bedsitters.

PS Hinga said the housing initiative is designed to address what he described as the “penalty of poverty,” noting that residents in informal settlements often pay significantly more for basic services.

“In Mukuru, we did a survey and found that the communities there pay 172% more for water than you and I pay, because they don’t have piped water. They pay over 140% more for electricity, and most of them are illegal connections. They also pay to use a toilet,” said Hinga.

He added that the programme aims to restore dignity for millions of Kenyans living in informal settlements by providing decent housing with proper infrastructure.

“That is probably the lowest level of indignity. Yet, the reality of the matter is, that is almost 70% of our urban population. That is how they live, so at the heart of this problem is about dignifying our people,” stated the PS.