National Assembly Departmental Committee on Housing, Urban Planning and Public Works Holds a Familiarization Retreat With Ministry, Departments and Agencies
The Committee on Housing, Urban Planning and Public works led by Hon. Johana Ng’eno is holding a familiarization retreat in Mombasa with Ministry, Departments and agencies. The committee is also set to conduct inspection visits to housing projects within the county. Among the official present from the ministry was the Cabinet secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing & Urban Development, Mr. Zacharia Mwangi, Principal Secretary for Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Charles Hinga, principal Secretary for Public Works, Mr. Joel Arumonyang and Directors of Various Agencies.
In his remarks, Hon Ng’eno highlighted the need to pull efforts together and enhance collaboration between all players to enable smooth engagements and effective service delivery.
While the Executive warms up to roll out a massive program on affordable housing, members were keen to understand how the ministry is planning to execute the plan and establish if they have the capacity to deliver the project. Referring to a similar program under Boma Yangu, members sought to understand the idea behind the project which never saw the light of the day.
The Boma Yangu was a project that was initiated to support the Affordable Housing Program while targeting delivery of decent and affordable housing to low and middle-income households but was later dropped leaving many of its contributors with no house. The project was aimed at reducing the gap between demand and supply for housing in Kenya.
“The Boma yangu forms the foundation for us to understand the concept of affordable housing and establish a background on which we are going to invest public funds collected from the 1.5% housing levy set to kick in at the start of next Financial year when President ascends to the bill,” Said Ng’eno.
As PS Hinga moved in to respond to raised questions, he explained that the ministry owns the platform on which the project is embedded. The government then accredited private investors who would develop houses with standard guidelines from the ministry and then upon completion the housing corporation would release them to the platform after remitting payments to the developer. This however was affected after the then president Kenyatta revoked the directive on mandatory contribution to the scheme by civil servants.
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