Housing projects: Sort out basic needs first

President William Ruto inspects the 955-unit Starehe affordable housing project in Nyahurur town, Laikipia West constituency. [PCS]

In 1968, when opening the first of many affordable housing schemes, the first Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew gave a good reason why he was focused on building affordable housing for his people.

“My Primary preoccupation is to give every citizen a stake in the country and its future. I said, let everybody own a home, their value goes up if the place is clean and beautiful on the inside and outside” he said.

I love quoting Lee Kuan Yew and will continue quoting him ad nauseum: remember, they started this Singapore thing. I didn’t.

Kuan Yew transformed the economic landscape of his country simply by the force of his character, an unparalleled vision and a selflessness that would be hard to find today. Just to give a good indicator of his constitution, the Americans tried to bribe him with US$10 million dollars (which was a lot more in the sixties) which he declined. Show me an African leader who would decline that kind of money, and I would move right away to that country and set up abode there. The average Head of State would gladly sell their mothers for that kind of money. But I digress.

Let’s look at our very own affordable housing project springing all over the country.

Nobody, except the Principal Secretary of the Housing Ministry, appears to understand this thing. The whole concept is shrouded in some deep mystery that has failed all understanding. You tax people for the houses. You build the houses using this new tax. You then put the houses for sale. This is redefining eating and having the cake.

I have many friends and family but I do not know of one who has secured one of these units for themselves. They also don’t know any person who has.

The few who had expressed an interest in purchasing some units in certain locales found that the units were unavailable. In Nakuru, a family member tells me the units were all allocated ‘offline”: for those trying to apply for the houses, they are directed to ‘try’ other sites.

Now, if I work in Nakuru, why would I want to purchase a unit 30 kilometres away in Rongai or Bahati? You buy a house because it is convenient and suits your lifestyle.

That person in Bahati already has a place they call home and has absolutely no reason to commit their money (if they have any in the first place) to move from their house and live perched like a bird on a concrete structure where they can’t even grow tomatoes.

And even if that person is not a local  - say a teacher from Eldoret posted to Nyonjoro Primary in Ol Kalou – chances are that they will have bought themselves a small piece of land and built some sort of structure where they live, all at a cost that might be the equivalent or less what is required as a deposit for the affordable housing unit. It does not make any sense.

Sometimes I think the entire enterprise is founded on a lie. It is just a way of some people to make a quick buck.

There was a recent report that the contractors working on these so-called affordable housing have made a profit of almost a hundred billion shillings. I have nothing against people making money, but this is obscene, especially for a social housing project.

I recently saw the President at a certain housing forum praising the entire enterprise as one of his successful projects. Apart from one or two fibs (that the owners will be paying equivalent of Sh5,000 a month to stay in the houses), I thought that the whole concept, as conceived would work but in another setting and time.

We must first tackle some of the basic issues that afflict us. That man called Abraham Maslow had a great idea: we must sort out basic needs first before we proceed to living a high life. No need for expensive shelter if you are living from hand to mouth and wear rags for clothes.

Get people work, provide them with security and other things will follow. I have no maleficent bone in me but truth must be told.

—The writer is a communications consultant