President William Ruto is expected to approve the Affordable Housing Bill on Monday the 18th.

This comes after Parliament on Thursday passed the legislation that will anchor the affordable housing programme.

“On Monday I will sign the bill because we are in agreement with the court on issues on housing. We want to make sure that we do that which is going to change our country,” President Ruto said.

The affordable housing project according to the head of state is going to provide employment opportunities for the youth as well as ensure sufficient land is available for agriculture and food production in the country.

“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.

This development therefore means that the government will start deducting the 1.5 per cent tax from both the employer and the employee by the end of March.

Speaking in Bomet, Ruto said that they have an agreement with the court to have a legislation that will anchor the affordable housing programme into law.

The courts had however in previous months rejected the levy terming it as unconstitutional but the Kenya Kwanza administration has moved to have it back through legislation.

In the Bill, Parliament approved devolved units to take administration of the programme giving county governments a legitimate hand in the flagship project.

In the amendments led by senators and seconded by the National Assembly counties will form the County Rural and Urban Affordable Housing committees for administration purposes.

They will also tasked with developing a framework for affordable housing in coordination with the national government agencies mandated to oversee the project.