Government has set aside 12,000 acres for affordable housing, Wahome

One of the government's Affordable Houses in Ngara, Nairobi County. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

Lands Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome has said the government has designated about 575 land parcels totaling about 12,000 acres since 2017 for the Affordable Housing Programme.

Wahome who appeared before the  Senate plenary to answer questions said the land parcels were submitted by ministries, counties, departments and authorities under the landbank plan.

 She however, said that not all the identified parcels will necessarily be used for the affordable housing programme as some of them are not potential sites and do not meet the criteria for potential projects but will be retained in the Landbank for future consideration.

“It is noted that the identification of parcels for affordable housing is a continuous process and more parcels will be onboarded once availed, the Ministry will continue to update the affordable housing land bank for future planning,” said Wahome.

The CS told the Senate that under the current procurement model, the developers are procured through the Public Procurement and Disposal Act with the terms mutually negotiated and agreed among the parties.

She said each project has a contract document that is mutually agreed upon by the developer and client before the development commences, with these contracts enabling the developers to be on boarded as strategic partners and thereby qualify for the incentives.

“The Affordable Housing development is currently being undertaken on Public Land and the same is not transferred and is not transferable to the developer, the project aims at benefiting the end buyers and is aimed at increasing homeownership across the country,” she said.

Wahome said Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru counties have a total of 62 parcels of land identified, this totals to about 780 acres that have been designated for the project.

She said her Ministry has completed the development of two projects in Park Road, Nairobi City County and Bondeni, Nakuru County while development on 7 parcels is currently ongoing on 116.5 acres of land in Nairobi and Nakuru counties.

According to the CS, the Park Road Project was the first Affordable Housing flagship project in the country and is located in Starehe Constituency, Nairobi County which was completed three years ago.

“The project site is located along Muslim and Kinshasa Road off Park Road in Ngara, Nairobi County, the project sits on 7.9 acres of land consisting of 1,370 affordable housing units comprising of 84 one-bedroom units, 480 two-bedroom units, and 806 three-bedroom units,” said Wahome.

She informed the Senate that the project commenced in February 2019 and was completed in October 2020 with all the units sold and are currently occupied with the land under which the project was developed owned by the National Government.

Wahome said the Bondeni project in Nakuru is being undertaken in Nakuru East Constituency with the project consisting of 605 housing units comprising of 45 one-bedroom units, 180 two-bedroom units, 380 three-bedroom units.

The project she said was completed in December 2023 and the units are still on sale.

She said there are a total of seven ongoing affordable projects in Nairobi and Nakuru Counties.