By HAROLD AYODO

Adequate housing remains a mirage, a new report claims. The latest Report on Housing Sector Financing in Kenya released yesterday by Hakijamii, an Economics and Social Rights Centre, explains the housing riddle.

According to the report, the shortage of houses in urban areas stands at 110,000 units annually as a paltry 40,000 units are constructed within the same period.

“As at May 2011, more than 80 per cent of new houses produced were for high and upper middle income earners yet the greatest demand (83 per cent) is for low income and lower middle income earners,” says the 32-page report.

It explains that the shortage of housing manifests itself through overcrowding, proliferation of slums and informal settlements in urban areas and poor quality housing in rural areas. “Delivery of housing to the poor and low income citizens is further exacerbated by disparity and imbalance in housing demand mitigation among income groups,” reads the report.

It says the budget for housing this financial year does not indicate concrete evidence of devolution: “Most of the funding is pegged to national agencies like the National Housing Corporation (NHC).”

The study by the Economic and Social Rights Centre says that for decades, there has been inadequate budgetary allocation for the provision of affordable housing, especially for the poor.

“Review of annual audit reports by the Auditor General demonstrate that spending of budget allocations to the sector are bedeviled with myriads of challenges,” it says. The hurdles include perpetual annual under-expenditure, under-collection of earmarked appropriations-in-aid, unsupported expenditure, unvouched expenditure and pending bills.

“There is lack of transparency in budget information from the housing sector. A review of budget information for housing from fiscal year 2007/08 reveals that detailed documents on housing financing are not available to the public,” says the report.

According to the study, it is difficult to fully analyse the 2013/14 budget as it is highly aggregated, without any details of expenditure in the mentioned programmes.

“The 2013/14 budget reflects the devolved functions of the county governments in the provision of housing as required by the Constitution,” says the report.

It further says the budget information is not in line with the constitutional requirements for transparency, accountability and fairness for their participation in the budgetary process.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The report recommends that slum upgrading should be made a stand-alone programme and budget presentation — both language and format — simplified to ensure meaningful and effective public participation. “A clear framework and guidelines for public participation in budgeting for the housing sector be developed and implemented,” it says

It also proposes that the budget for housing should clearly reflect and incorporate the devolved functions of the county governments in the delivery of housing and the budgetary allocation for the National Housing Corporation should reflect the same.

“The housing sector appropriation-in-aid  should be turned into revenue for effective collection, reduce leakages and fraud, improve the budget absorptive capacity, and implement an urgent programme on staff transformation and change management,” it says.

According to the report, annual progress reports on the achievement of the indicators be publicly released to enhance accountability in the sector.

It  further recommends that the functions of the National Housing Corporation should be devolved.

“The NHC was created specifically to build housing at the national level. Housing is now a primary responsibility of county governments, therefore,  functions of the corporation should be reviewed for  the budgetary allocation to reflect the devolved system,” it says.

The report calls for  planning and budgeting capacity in counties to  urgently build the required capacity on policy, planning and budgeting.

“This is the only way they will undertake their mandates since the budget is the policy document, which will enable them achieve meaningful development goals,” reads the report.

It further challenges counties to take over their budget process and prepare necessary policy and planning documents as required by law.

“The law provides for County Fiscal Strategy Paper and County Development Plan to

enable them prepare a comprehensive budget in 2014,” it says.

It adds: “This would avoid scenarios like in the current budget process in which the national government prepared the figures in the absence of the counties, thus undermining the functions earmarked for devolution,”

The report says absorption capacity of government funds is below expectation. On average, the Ministry of Housing used 89 per cent of total allocated funds between 2007/2008 and 2011/2012, returning about Sh1.9 billion to the exchequer. “This has had a negative impact on the implementation of programme activities and achievement of certain objectives. There is a clear need to improve the capacity to implement budgets at the ministry. The push for more allocation to the sector may not yield much,” says the housing report.

 

HOUSING RIGHTS

•             The  Constitution recognises access to housing as a human right.

•             Article 43 of the Constitution  specifically provides that every person has the right to accessible and adequate housing, and reasonable standard of sanitation.

•  The International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights (ICESCR), to which Kenya is a state party, also recognises the right to adequate housing (Article 11(1)).

•  Despite the recognition of housing as a fundamental human right, the Kenyan housing sector is characterised by deteriorating housing  conditions countrywide.


 

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