President William Ruto has signed the controversial affordable housing bill into law.
The Head of State put his signature on the bill at the State House, Nairobi on Tuesday, paving way for the return of the highly contested 1.5% housing levy deductions.
This is after both the Senate and the National Assembly passed the bill last week with several amendments including incorporating county governments into the program.
The 1.5% deductions require all employers and employees to remit a section of their income from their monthly salaries into the program that continues put a dent their finances.
The head of state during his visit to Kericho said that the affordable housing project will provide employment opportunities for young people in the country.
He also said that the project will ensure there is sufficient land available for agriculture and food production.
“Housing is going to give us jobs for our young people, give us decent living conditions for our people, is going to assist us in making sure that we have land for food production and is also going to make sure that we grow our manufacturing sector,” the President said .
Three judges of the High Court last year ruled that the introduction of the Housing Levy through amendment of the Employment Act by Section 84 of the Finance Act, 2023 lacks a comprehensive legal framework in violation of Articles 10, 201, 206 and 210 of the Constitution.
The Kenya Kwanza government however maintained that it’s 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 that 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.
The Counties will form the County Rural and Urban Affordable Housing committees for administration purposes and also be tasked with developing a framework for affordable housing in coordination with the national government agencies mandated to oversee the project.