Kisumu — The affordable housing levy will pick up once the necessary legal frameworks are in place, Joshua Nyamori, a director at National Housing Corporation has said.
Nyamori said the court did pronounce itself well on the matter and as a matter of fact the head of state President William Ruto has hinted at aligning the relevant policies to the levy.
He said currently there is no stable policy and regulatory framework to anchor the levy on.
“There are certain things that have not been done, the president has pronounced himself that the government is ready to align the policies as directed by the court,” said Nyamori.
He noted that the affordable housing is a pet project of President Ruto and it will go on as envisaged in the Kenya Kwanza administration manifesto.
Speaking in Kisumu during the ongoing Affordable Housing Festival taking place at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Sports Ground, Nyamori said the alignment of the policies will not take the government a long time.
“I am not worried about this, it will go on as planned, the policy and legal framework will be developed appropriately,” he said.
Nyamori noted that the government knows where the gaps are and will move with speed to rectify the bottlenecks before moving ahead with the implementation of the project.
Grassroots Trust for Community Organizations coordinator Lawrence Apiyo, the convener of the festival said anchoring of the housing levy fund on a legal framework will guarantee the sustainability of the project.
Apiyo said the Constitution mandates county governments with the primary responsibility of providing affordable housing thus a legal framework must be put in place for a sustainable resource allocation from the national treasury to the counties.
“Our counties do not have the money to do the houses, the allocations they get from the treasury cannot even produce housing units adequate to the people,” he said.
Apiyo said the festival will address the financing models necessary for doing housing units for Kenyans.
The festival kicked off with a symposium at the University of Nairobi (UoN) Kisumu Campus, with a theme of “Proclaiming Affordable Housing is Freedom towards an equitable and inclusive Affordable housing”.
The event will explore variables impeding construction of adequate and affordable housing, such as land, housing finance, policy and legal frameworks and the targeted beneficiary involvements.