2. Housing Act, 1953 Cap 117 (Revised in 2012)

The law provides for establishment of the National Housing Corporation, the Housing Development Fund and a housing board.

Quick Link: https://new.kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/act/1953/17/eng@2022-12-31

· Section 3 of the Act provides for the establishment of the National Housing Corporation (NHC) which under section 7 controlled the now-defunct National Housing Development Fund.

· The National Housing Development Fund was established to increase the supply of affordable housing by private developers via the Offtake Agreement and as a bridge to the demand for affordable housing by low and middle-income Kenyans. The Fund was to provide developers with Offtake Agreements to purchase qualifying affordable housing units.

· The Affordable Housing Act 2024 provides for the establishment of the Affordable Housing Fund which replaces the National Housing Development Fund. NHC is required to deposit into the AHF all monies it held under the National Housing Development Fund.

· Section 8 allows the NHC to make loans to any company, society or individual person to enable the acquisition of land and construction of approved dwellings; make loans to organizations established for promoting the development of housing; acquire and maintain any land or building or estate; construct dwellings, carry out approved schemes and provide services for such schemes.

· Section 9 allows for the NHC to guarantee the issuance of loans to a company, society or individual person so long as such person enters into an agreement with the NHC to reimburse any money which it is called upon to pay under the guarantee; and security being provided for the due performance of such agreement.

· Under section 10 of the Act, one of the functions of the NHC includes: operating a housing finance institution with powers to borrow funds from the government, overseas agencies, trust funds, pension funds and any other institution or persons and to collect deposits and savings from the public to be applied towards financing of residential housing development.

· The NHC also has powers to: undertake and encourage research and experiment in housing-related matters and undertake and encourage the collection and dissemination of information concerning housing and related matters.

· Section 14 states that any local authority may, out of the loans or grants made to it from the National Housing Development Fund acquire land, construct approved dwellings and carry out schemes within its area of jurisdiction.

· Section 22 provides that the Minister for Local Government (Cabinet Secretary for Devolution or an equivalent post) may, upon application by NHC, declare any by-law or resolution made by a local authority as inapplicable to the dwellings where it is inconsistent with conditions of approval specified by NHC in respect of any dwelling.

· Section 23 provides that the Minister may by written notice require a local authority to make provision for housing for persons where the Minister is of the view that the needs of these persons ordinarily employed within that area following a local inquiry by a public officer appointed for that purpose are inadequate or unsuitable.

· Given that the NHC has a huge land bank yet it has developed relatively few housing units, more attention should be devoted to increasing its capacity to deliver more houses, or alternatively to release the land to private developers say through public-private partnership arrangements.