President Ruto signs Affordable Housing Bill into law

The Head of State appended his signature on the bill at State House, Nairobi on Tuesday, paving way for the return of the unwelcome housing levy deductions.

Both the Senate and the National Assembly passed the bill last week with several amendments including bringing county governments to the fold.

All employers and employees will remit a deduction of 1.5% from their monthly salaries further puncturing the citizens' pockets.

The levy had been declared unconstitutional by the High Court in 2023 and then the Court of Appeal upheld the decision maintaining that the levy was introduced without a legal framework. 

Ruto's government has however maintained that the suspension provided room for restructuring the bill and now provides a new legal framework for the levy.

The bill establishes four components of Affordable Housing.

They include the Social Housing Unit for persons earning less than Ksh.20,000, Middle Class for people earning above Ksh.49,000, General Affordable Housing for those earning between Ksh.20,000 to Ksh.149,000 and Rural Housing for those living outside urban areas.

Some of the institutions that will be mandated with implementing the Housing project include the Ministry of Housing, National Housing Corporation (NHC), County governments, and Private entities as approved by the fund's management body; the Affordable Housing Board.

The bill also noted that priority will be afforded to slum areas in constructing the affordable houses and also to ensure there is no multiple allocation of housing units.

Construction materials will also be sourced from local manufacturers and labour sourced from local communities.