Affordable housing is one of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big 4 Agenda. His target of building half a million housing units by 2022 is quite ambitious – even if funds were sufficient.
It’s an open secret that our current financial situation is quiet stressed as we begin to service the big infrastructure loans we took during the first Jubilee administration.
As a country, we are indeed cash-strapped as evidenced by various looming strikes by lecturers, teachers, doctors and pilots demanding their fair share of the national budget.
One easy, perhaps lazy, approach is of course to get another international loan to pay off the old ones. What economists like to frame as filling one hole, by digging another bigger one.
The other option that the government tried but got quiet some lashing and pulled back was when they tried to raise capital by introducing a housing levy on all salaried employees.
The messaging around it was horribly executed. For instance, the Permanent Secretary for Housing said on live television that whereas all employees would be contributing, only a few would get a house – based on some random algorithm.
SOURCE: DAILY NATION
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