For President Ruto's government, it has to be housing, not ownership

President William Ruto during the Kenya Kwanza Parliamentary group meeting in Naivasha on September 16, 2022. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard] Rather than be lulled into complacency by the government's perpetual announcements and re-announcements on housing - the sort that gets lots of attention but gets us nowhere near where we need to be - we need to rethink housing in Kenya. It is not far-fetched to say that it is well beyond time to rethink the housing question and commit to doing what it takes to achieve housing for all. The new administration, like its predecessor, must not conflate the right to housing with the right to ownership. When considering housing as a right, Article 43, 1(b) of our Constitution: "Every person has a right to accessible and adequate housing, and to a reasonable standard of sanitation", we have to be specific: housing, not ownership. Government honchos in developing countries, including ours, incessantly conflate homeownership and the human right to adequate shelter. What is this fetish for homeownership? In Singapore, 91 per cent of the population own homes and the country is ranked ninth in the world human development index. Romanian population homeownership, on the other hand, is at 98 per cent and the country is ranked number 52 on the world human development index. Come to Switzerland; ranked second with only 38 per cent of the population owning homes. Again, what is every government's fixation about owning homes? To solve our looming housing crisis, we must not only challenge but also broadcast this mistaken idea. Fixing the housing crisis requires working outside the market. I will elaborate on that shortly but first, we must disabuse the fact that the extant crisis is constantly misunderstood by many, including the media, as primarily an ownership crisis. We don't need homeowners; we need public housing. I listened as President William Ruto talked about building 250,000 houses annually, thus meeting our annual housing demand. Just like his predecessor's agenda of 500,000 houses in five years, I bet he is on the wavelength of home ownership - we don't need that. It has failed before; it will fail again. There are numerous Kenyans living in dilapidated conditions in this city on less than a dollar a day, owning a house is the least of their priority. However, they too have to shelter under Article 43, 1(b); the right to accessible and adequate housing with reasonable sanitation standards. It is an alienable government's duty to provide housing for such people. Housing, not ownership. How can the new administration achieve this? Firstly, the new administration must do away with the financialisation of housing. These are the policies and practices that promote the perception of housing as an investment product. This has to be an agenda on fulfilling a constitutional duty, not profits. The government must stop treating this agenda as an investment space instead of a space where a fundamental human need is met. It must discourage exploitation. Let me put it bluntly; affordable housing, or public housing, will not be achieved through the market and profit model. We must begin to make a case for non-profit developments here. It is imperative that we break away from a dominant mindset that sees private sector property developers as the primary builders of housing. Greed for profit has shackled many among them and the common person can no longer afford their houses, yet they are the majority. The government, both national and devolved, must scale up the non-profit development of non-market housing on public/community-owned land. This is the long-term key to achieving the public goal of affordable housing. I'm not blind to our limited resources and I appreciate our economic situation at the moment, but we do not need a patch-up on this, we must begin to treat this wound. This administration must begin to right the wrongs of past administrations. The United Nations projects that half of the world's population will live in cities by 2050. Our housing crisis is about to worsen in due course. I was a big critic of the Jubilee administration's housing agenda. Like most government agendas, it was populist without much a do. They had primarily set their sight on ownership, including setting up the Kenya mortgage company instead of simply providing public housing. Its flop is one for historians to document, but it wasn't surprising. This administration must not repeat the same mistakes. I encourage them to adopt a non-profit or minimal profit policy on their housing plan, this is not an investment sphere; it is about a basic right. Set up a programme after negotiating with all construction material manufacturers, do away with some taxes and allow the companies minimal profits - set the limit. For instance, get the cement cost to about half the price and do the same with the rest of the materials. Thereafter, open the programme to all Tom, Dick and Harry who are interested in doing affordable housing under the programme all over the country and partner with counties where needed. Like in most Nordic countries, give the houses on long-term rents instead of ownership. I strongly believe it is possible to build 250,000 houses in a year, it all depends on the strategy. This is a good target that I support, anything short would be courting a housing disaster in due course. In light of our dwindling exchequer resources, the best strategy is to involve as many as possible, all and sundry, but within a tight profit guideline. Let's do it, Mr President - housing, not ownership.

For President Ruto's government, it has to be housing, not ownership

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For President Ruto's government, it has to be housing, not ownership

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