Willis Otieno slams Affordable Housing programme after Auditor-General flags land ownership gaps
By Kenneth Mwenda, April 30, 2026Lawyer Willis Evans Otieno has criticised the government’s affordable housing programme after the Auditor-General raised concerns over missing land ownership documents in many projects.
Otieno shared his reaction on X on Thursday, April 30, 2026, after details of the audit report became public. He said the findings confirmed what many Kenyans had suspected from the start.
“The Auditor-General Kenya reveals that 269 out of 394 so-called affordable housing projects lack proper land ownership documents. It confirms what many already suspected: this programme was rushed for optics, not grounded in law or accountability,” he wrote.
His remarks followed a special audit report that reviewed the status of affordable housing projects from the 2022/2023 financial year to April 30, 2025.
The report exposed major legal and administrative gaps in one of President William Ruto’s flagship programmes.
According to the Auditor-General, 269 out of 394 projects did not have proper ownership documents. That represents 68 per cent of all projects reviewed.
The affected developments include affordable housing projects, social housing units, markets built under the economic stimulus programme, solar floodlight projects, market stalls and other social infrastructure.
The audit found that some projects sit on community land or land held under customary tenure. Others stand on land owned by county governments. In several cases, auditors could not verify ownership records.
Otieno said such failures put home buyers and taxpayers at risk.
“You cannot claim to provide homes while building on legal quicksand, where ownership is unclear, buyers are exposed, and taxpayers carry the risk of inevitable disputes and losses,” he stated.
He also accused the government of presenting poor planning as progress.
“This is institutionalised negligence dressed up as progress,” he added.
Pressure mounts over projects
The lawyer further argued that Kenyans are being asked to finance projects that may later face court battles or ownership disputes.
“If there were ever a clear example of governance failing the very people it claims to serve, this is it and it demands answers, accountability, and consequences, not spin,” he wrote.
Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga appeared before the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee and responded to the concerns.
Hinga said the number of projects with valid land records had improved since the audit was conducted. He told MPs that 125 projects now hold confirmed documentation, up from 48 at the time of the audit.
Even so, the figures still show a large number of projects without complete legal records.
The Auditor-General also questioned how the programme began. The report said no formal cost-benefit analysis or proper project appraisal framework was documented before rollout.
It further found no clear affordability threshold study to guide house prices or identify beneficiaries. Some planning assumptions, including land readiness, private sector interest and financing methods, also lacked proper documentation.