Housing ministry, Gov't spokesperson differ on number of affordable houses built

President Uhuru Kenyatta's government pledged to build 500,000 housing units in its second term, however, the actual number of houses completed to date has been disputed.

Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, Oguna said the government had exceeded the 500,000 units target.

He said, "250,000 housing units have been completed across the country. Another 650,000 are in the pipeline, way more than the 500,000 promised by Jubilee Administration."

The tweet was in response to environmental architect, Prof Alfred Omenya's comment that the government had failed to deliver on housing.

Omenya had made the comment during a panel discussion on the Nairobi Gubernatorial Debate held on Monday. Housing was one of the topics tackled by aspirants during the debate.

However, Housing PS Charles Hinga, in a previous interview with Citizen Digital's 'Property Simplified' show, said systemic issues that precede President Kenyatta's two terms were to blame for the government being unable to hit its target to build 500,000 houses in five years.

Hinga said that under 9,000 units of public housing have been delivered to date.

"It's not easy to give a figure of how many units have been delivered to date. That is because we have two sets of housing: we have public housing on government land, which is under 9,000 units (that have been delivered). The balance (units) are being delivered by the private sector. The government's main role is supportive. This was after a departure after the Housing Fund was frustrated," he said.

The PS proceeded to say that approvals have been given for 384,162 units to commence construction and the developers are finalising funding with banks.