The Policy of Affordable Housing (Rents) in Kenya under NASA and President Raila Odinga.
Nairobi, May 30th 2017. Author: Hon Kenneth Okoth, MP
The quest for affordable housing is a realistic pro-people agenda in the NASA manifesto that can be accomplished in five clear steps. It will promote social well-being, create jobs, and stimulate the economic growth of Kenya in a more equitable way. Here is what needs to be done to realise this worthy goal.
1. Subsidize the landlords and investors building rental homes for low and middle income families. Kenya government subsidizes importers of choppers, Brazilian sugar, and Mexican maize; why not local builders of rental homes for Wanjiku? National Housing Corporation and National Construction Authority to be revamped with enhanced resources, mandate, and targets for financing and construction of affordable housing in partnership with county governments and private sector.
2. Lower the taxes levied on building materials and costs of construction and promote innovation in use of local materials and job creation in the construction sector. Streamline regulatory framework and guidelines for easier processing of permits to build more affordable rental housing. Eliminate bureaucratic hurdles, corruption, and hidden costs that make doing business in Kenya a nightmare.
3. Regulate and negotiate mortgage rates for real estate investors and individuals; allowing owners to pay back their loans faster and enjoy returns on their rental investments.
4. Regulate rents in market segments where PPP (public private partnership) approaches have been used for affordability.
5. Implement comprehensive slum-upgrading program with new construction technology like in Malaysia and India.
#MamboYabadilika #10MillionStrong
#VoteNASA
The author is Member of Parliament for Kibra Constituency, Nairobi.
Anonymous says
Also allow free electricity,water n sewerage connectivity for real estate developers etc etc
JJ says
And also ask parastatals and Government organizations to house their staff
Anonymous says
U cant tell me on how to rent my own houses,i can use them as stores n thats not a manfesto
arlly arcen says
acha upuzi. u r telling us that u own rental house samwea
Nobody says
Labda kibera pekee.
Alex Muli says
Those saying they cant be told are only ignorant of the laws of this land…there is a contitutional rent tribunal with its own court where people with rent issues go to be addressed….Kenyans just became too corrupt that these laws are not known to many just like the Roman catholic blinded its followers by not allowing bibles in church! Come on kenyans
Anonymous says
Please don’t involve our church in your comments !!!! carrying a bible does not make you a saint, we have bibles in our homes and in our hearts.
Nielsen David says
The guy is telling the truth. roman Catholic blinded its followers. that’s why they are worshiping Mary and bowing down to idols. They believe in the existence of purgatory which is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. if the Bible is in your heart why are you still a Catholic, as a matter of fact you’re lying to yourself, read the Bible and know the truth. The rosary won’t save you once you die and hgo to Hell. be born again man.
Anonymous says
Jubilee ni mavi ya kuku kabisa imesinya kama kinyesi duale
Humphreys A>A> says
Can NSSF funds be used to provide housing for the real contributers to the Fund?The last time i checked houses were put up in upmarket locations out of reach to the people who contribute to NSSF.
RONALD OGWENO says
we await for this to be a reality once u guyz are in office…..we as students do suffer a lot on this
Anonymous says
we need new people in office who has sobber mind
ouma says
Alex u r silly why in stupid talk bring Catholic Church, u r an empty numbs kul. Bure kabisa
Nonini says
Check what Ethiopia has done,anyone over 18 can own a house for as low as 4k a month,a family can only own one house.
concerned Kenyan says
This guy think people are so stupid and can not differentiate empty promises from the reality. How is he going to reduce rental in 90 days, get the economy going in the same period, get billions to pay teachers / doctors and everyone else in such a short time? He seem not to understand the mechanics of running nation. This is not a light switch whereby you flip the switch and the lights come on.
Track his record, he (MP ) represented Kibra for years and turned Kibra into shanty town, ruined Mumias sugar industry. And now he is telling as he is the best man to lead Kenya…..
Learn from Donald Trump’s ” make America great again in 100 days”. Up to date he have failed to achieve a damn thing.
Idi Amin had the same dreams / promises and left Uganda in ruins. Lesson learnt Kenyans… If it sounds too good to be true leave it alone.
Tryx says
The scandals of NYS, AFYA HOUSE EUROBOND among others those are billions and billions Raila will use to pay poor teachers and doctors’ salaries
Ouma philip says
it’s simple,vote Raila experience better but affordable lifestyle,vote the incumbent experience the worst lifestyle in your lifetime.
cool says
All politicians are bloody liars. There’s a limit to what you can achieve in a hundred days. Even the cabinet secretaries won’t have comfortably settled in office to start implementing your pledges. Not to mention that half of the principles are likely to be elected in the county level, meaning you’ll be busy campaigning to regain the positions left vacant if you win, by chance if I my add.
Oyalo says
Poor u Our comments Should be on the Top Agenda not on commentators reactions
xpLORer says
If you wish to understand the meaning of JUBILEE …
J … Join
U … Unwanted
B … Brothers
I … In
L … Looting
E … Everything
E … Everywhere
God has REJECTED Uhuru and has handed over the reigns of power to RAILA … yesterday, marks the end of Uhuru regime, when he got a certification to seek votes for his presidential election … GOD AND KENYANS WILL SAY NO! He will remain kikuyu elder coz kikuyu endorsement is the best for him!
Na kama ni mwanaume hawe Raisi baada ya uchanguzi huundio nijionee mwenyewe!
afune says
No mater what we shuold remain kenya together hatakama tunapleka wazi nyunb
ani
Anonymous says
raundi hii raila odinga is going to be the president of kenya nomater what becoz mwaka huu nimwaka wa mabadiliko hata vipofu wata ona wakenya tume umiya nawengine hawaoni eti uhuruto tano tena mutashangaa sana beyi ya unga juu sukarii juu usalama hakuuna tumetengwa wakenya wenzangu tugutuke raundii hii nimuaka wa urgesho walionyangawa watarudishiwa waliye na uzini watafurai mungu ameamua kutukomboa piga kura kwa uwadili badilisha kenya
kalala says
uhuru n ruto..start packing ua rags n move to wea ua mother’s are..its gud both r a live..go!go!..kwenda kabixa.
kebedi christine says
Kura yako siri yako
arlly arcen says
jubilee should start vacating the office. kenyans have been blinded to vote in land grabbers, thiefs and criminals. uhurus problematic running mate should be changed to avoid losing re-election.
Thrasher says
Utafanya hivyo nyumba zako,Watu watafurushwa nje July raiya utafanya nyumba zako hivyo!
Anonymous says
THE TYRANNY OFLIES :
RAILA BEATING THE DRUMS OF WAR!!
Prof. Mutahi Ngunyi
Raila is beating the drums of war. Let me explain. For starters, he has told us that the government will rig this election. And that IEBC is the government and the government is IEBC. But this does not worry me.
What worries me are two pointers to the ‘coming war’. One, Raila has told us that if he loses, he will not go to court. He will go direct to the court of public opinion. And the people will decide whether the election was stolen or not.
If they decide that the election was stolen (which they will do anyway) then Raila will be declared the ‘People’s President’. Following this declaration, they will use the First Article of the constitution that states “…all sovereign power rests with the people”.
On the basis of this Article, they will then swear him in. And should this happen, it will be a declaration of war. Two, Raila has insisted on having a parallel tallying system. And the question I ask on this is the following: Will he use this system to declare Uhuru Kenyatta the winner? The answer is zero! He has put up this system to declare himself the winner, whether he wins or not.
The point here is simple: Raila is not interested in the election. He has the results already “cooked” in his tallying centre. And he can announce them tomorrow if he wants to. To him, he won the election the day he was declared the National Super Alliance (Nasa) candidate.
August 8 is just an annoying event. But there is one more thing. He has already told us how many votes he will garner. He calls this the “10 Million Strong Campaign”. His parallel tallying centre has therefore been programmed to ‘cook’ a figure close to 10 million votes. And since he has conditioned our minds to believe his political ‘lies’, we will entertain this ‘cooked’ figure.
What the country has not done, though, is to interrogate Raila’s “Tyranny of Lies”. Let me begin with the “10 Million Strong” Lie. I must admit that it is clever. And the idea is to ‘normalise’ the rigging lie, the lie about the tallying centre and the lie about the “People’s President”. If this fake president is elected by 10 million people, he will be presumed legitimate!
The “Tyranny of Lies” will have won the election. But to break down the “10 Million” lie, I took time off to study five elections. I examined the elections from 1992 to 2013. And I have the following submissions to make.
One, Kenyans vote along ethnic lines. There is no point cheating ourselves. In the 2013 election, 95 per cent of the Luo Nation voted for Raila; and 91 per cent of Gema voted for Uhuru. This is a statistical fact.
Two, it is difficult to explain the Luhya Nation using science. Their voting patterns are not predictable. As such, they are not ‘bankable’ until you lock them in the ‘bank’. Take 2002 for instance, because the Luo Nation did not have a stake in the Kibaki coalition, their turnout dropped to a record low of 53 per cent.
However, the turnout drop for the Luhya Nation was worse. Although they had Kijana Wamalwa as Mzee Kibaki’s running mate, they did not care. Their turnout dropped from 68.2 per cent to 39 per cent in the 2002 election.
If they did this at a time when their candidate was running mate, how will they behave if their stake in Nasa is zero? We will discuss this scientific puzzle of the Luhya Nation another day!
Now I must return to the “10 Million” lie of Nasa. If you take the last five elections as case studies, we must conclude that the average voter turnout will be 69 per cent or more. The IEBC register shows that there are 5.58 million Gema votes; and 2.32 million Kalenjin votes. This gives Jubilee a total of 7.9 million votes, if ethnic voting is a fact.
The three communities of Nasa include 2.22 million Luo voters, 2.13 million Kamba voters and 2.56 million Luhya voters. This adds up to 6.9 million votes.
Put differently, Jubilee is starting this campaign with 7.9 million votes in the bag and Nasa’s bag has 6.9 million votes. And you can counter-check this with the IEBC register and the National Census for credibility of my figures.
If voter turnout is 69 per cent, generated as an average from the last five elections, these numbers are bound to change. Jubilee’s actual votes fall from 7.9 million to 5.96 million and those of Nasa fall from 6.9 million to 4.5 million. And this is because of an average voter turnout of 69 per cent generated from five elections. If this average is acceptable, therefore, and Nasa is starting its campaign at 4.5 million votes, how do they jump to “10 Million Strong”?
And how do they get there with voter apathy in Ukambani and Luhya country? To do so, there has to be two extremes. One, Raila has to convince all the Gema voters to follow him to Kibera. If he can do this, he will add 4.1 million votes to his 4.5 million votes.
This will only add up to 9.6 million votes. Two, Raila has to convince the entire country, including the entire William Ruto stronghold and bwana Ruto himself, to follow him to Kibera. This must be done in two months.
If he does it, he will add 4.9 million to his votes. This will give him 9.4 million votes. What is my point here? Raila’s base is worth 4.5 million votes only. This has potential to grow to 6 million votes.
But if it grows to 9 million, let alone 10 million, then his tallying station will have ‘cooked’ the figures. This will mean that the entire Gema nation voted for him or the entire country, including William Ruto, abandoned Gema and voted for Raila. And this is why Raila is a master of ‘Tyranny of Lies”. But now you must allow me to show a little kindness to Raila.
All he wants is to get into government as President or Prime Minister. And in my considered opinion, he will force his way in. I will not be surprised if we swear him in as Prime Minster in October. But I could also be wrong. Maybe Kalonzo Musyoka will betray him and become Prime Minister instead! This election is downright complex!
-Courtesy of The Peoples daily
Anonymous says
porojo tuu
If you wish to understand the
meaning of JUBILEE …
J … Join
U … Unwanted
B … Brothers
I … In
L … Looting
E … Everything
E … Everywhere