The Policy is the main policy document that governs the housing sector in Kenya and sets out the legal and institutional framework as well as the goals and objectives of the housing sector.
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· This is the main policy document governing the entire housing sector in Kenya, which lays the strategic vision and direction for the government with the aim of achieving the progressive realization of the right to accessible and adequate housing and reasonable standards of sanitation. It replaced Sessional Paper No. 3 of 2004 on National Housing Policy.
· The policy document attributes the shortage of housing to: a high population growth rate, rapid urbanization, widespread poverty, escalating costs of providing housing and cumbersome approval processes.
· Accordingly, the policy sets out the following objectives:
“Enabling low-income households to access housing, basic services and infrastructure necessary for a healthy living environment, especially in urban and peri-urban areas;
Encouraging integrated, participatory approaches to slum upgrading and improvement, including income-generating activities that effectively combat poverty;
Creating a National Social Housing Development Fund to be financed through budgetary allocations and financial support from development partners and other sources for rental social housing and related infrastructure, and other low-cost housing programmes;
Establishing a framework that enables the National Social Housing Development Fund to support research and slum upgrading;
Promoting collaborative research and funding of the same on the development of low-cost building materials and construction technologies;
Contributing to the harmonization of existing laws governing urban development factors that interact with housing delivery especially housing infrastructure to facilitate more cost-effective housing development; and
Facilitating increased investment by the private sector in the production of housing for low and middle-income urban dwellers.”
· The policy document is anchored on four core pillars: first is the policy targets; the second is the main housing inputs and seeking ways of accessing and managing these inputs including land, infrastructure, technologies and finances; the third is estates management and maintenance to ensure the lifespan of the housing stock; and the fourth is the legislative and institutional framework and the specific roles of various stakeholders. The policy calls for a comprehensive review of the current Housing Act (Cap 117) to strengthen the role of the Ministry in regulating housing development.
· The policy further calls on: county governments to formulate 5-yearly housing plans that ensure enough new homes are built and which plans must be audited regularly to assess performance with these plans being funded by grants from the County Infrastructure Fund (CIF), National Social Housing Development Fund and National Housing Corporation; National and County Governments as well as relevant agencies to initiate and execute several housing programmes; establish a National Social Housing Development Fund to provide social housing as well as related to guide the Fund, anchored in the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 in the interim and to eventually be anchored in a comprehensive Housing Bill to be enacted; promote appropriate and effective public-private partnerships for investment in housing; foster active participation of all stakeholders including civil society institutions, community based organizations and individuals in the provision of sustainable housing; encourage multigenerational mortgages as a way of extending repayment period; channeling a percentage of capital gains tax into a fund to support social housing with the Government leveraging on sovereign bonds to boost the fund; encourage Government-backed or approved private–run schemes to develop tenant purchase schemes to help people who cannot afford to purchase their own home in the open market; County Governments to prioritize provision of social housing through provision of infrastructure and availing serviced land with security of tenure and through setting aside suitable public land, compulsory acquisition, recovery of grabbed public land that is kept idle for speculative purposes and ensuring commensurate penalties are imposed on idle land; a certain percentage of all housing development projects shall be required to comprise social housing; redevelopment of old or dilapidated urban housing estates; where justified, requiring leaseholds in urban areas whose lease period expire to avail them for social housing or the previous holder seeking extension being required to pay a percentage of the value thereof and such payment being applied in provision of social housing; undertaking proper urban zoning to ensure that social housing is developed near the Central Business District; developing a framework for tapping cheaper housing funds from the cooperative sector which will enable current saving and credit societies to develop special products for housing financing that may be repaid over a period of up to 7 years, up from the current 3-4 years; empower existing and potential housing cooperatives through provision of clear guidelines as well as develop various housing cooperative financing models on communal ownership and management; and promote savings for housing as a national priority.
· In terms of the institutional framework, the policy document notes the following challenges that have affected the housing sector over the years:
a) The current institutional arrangement for housing planning, development and management is fragmented, inconsistent and characterized by overlapping roles and lines of accountability;
b) The portfolio of housing has over the years, been moved from one ministry to another and sometimes paired with portfolios that are not compatible with housing delivery resulting in the creation of an environment that is not conducive for effective performance;
c) The roles of the stakeholders, have in the past, not been clearly defined. For example, the role of the National Housing Corporation has been changing since its establishment;
d) The defunct local governments were not able to mobilize resources from developers for service provision in all residential areas with stakeholders such as the private sector, professionals, NGOs, CBOs, cooperatives, communities and international organizations not being sufficiently mobilized and organized to play their role in harnessing resources for housing development;
e) The huge potential of the cooperative movement in mobilizing resources has not been fully exploited;
f) Professionals in the building industry being an impediment to the development of affordable housing due to their insistence on rather complex designs and costly specifications of construction materials and techniques.
· Further, professional fees are based on cost and therefore do not augur well with specifying alternative and affordable building materials and techniques.
