Ruto: Affordable Housing Programme will forever change Kenya’s destiny

President William Ruto has put the Affordable Housing Programme at the centre of his administration’s economic transformation agenda, saying it has grown beyond a home-ownership scheme into a major source of jobs and business for millions of Kenyans.

Ruto said the programme has created employment for about 1.1 million people while expanding the construction industry’s value chain by driving demand for steel, glass, timber, cement and other building materials.

Speaking during a media engagement at Kisumu State Lodge on Monday, the President challenged leaders calling for the programme to be abolished to explain how they would replace the jobs and opportunities created through the initiative.

“I want to ask those leaders who are saying they are going to abolish the Affordable Housing plan, what alternative plan do they have?” Ruto posed.

Ruto maintained that any proposal to abolish the programme must take into account the workers, businesses and communities that have become part of the housing value chain.

The Head of State also linked the housing programme to government efforts to eradicate slums over the next 15 years.

“Imagine somebody who lives in a house that has no toilet, no water, no electricity, no road, but you want to stop the only plan that can give them a chance to own a home,” he said.

In addition, the President noted that the Housing Fund is being used to improve facilities for other groups, including small-scale traders who operate in difficult conditions and students in universities and TVET institutions.

He said markets being developed through the fund will provide traders such as mama mbogas with more dignified spaces equipped with basic amenities, while student hostels will address accommodation challenges in institutions of higher learning.

Ruto further argued that planned housing development is helping address land fragmentation by reducing pressure to subdivide agricultural land for settlement, linking the programme to broader efforts to protect food production.

He described affordable housing as a programme that has been on Kenya’s development agenda since independence, with the potential to have a lasting effect on the country’s social and economic development.

“If there is one thing that will forever change the destiny of our nation, it is the affordable housing programme,” he said.

The post Ruto: Affordable Housing Programme will forever change Kenya’s destiny appeared first on KBC Digital.