State reaffirms resolve on affordable housing promise to Kenyans

The government has reaffirmed its resolve to implement the affordable housing project as a way of safeguarding the livelihoods and dignity of its citizens.

Government spokesman Cyrus Oguna, said apart from making housing affordable for all, the project will create a wide range of job opportunities for the youth in the country.

“As we speak these projects are going on across the country. Last week we were in the Pangani area where a project to construct 1,500 housing units is going on,” Oguna said in Mombasa after visiting the ongoing Sh6.3 billion Buxton Point Project.

The government spokesman said in the same Pangani area a similar project has been completed and 1,370 units have already been occupied.

Such projects, Oguna envisioned, will remodel the current situation where the country is facing a dire shortage of affordable housing, a situation he said paves way for mushrooming informal settlements especially in urban centers.

“Because of inadequate housing, and high cost of land, most people are being reduced to slum dwellers where they live destitute lives because they cannot afford to live in decent houses.

It is for this reason that his Excellency the President came up with this idea of affordable housing,” he said. 

“The whole idea is to lower the cost of construction of houses and make it affordable for people to become homeowners,” Oguna added.

He said even though some people ride in vehicles, they still live in rental houses because they cannot afford to own a house due to the high cost of housing.

Oguna hailed the multi-billion Mombasa Buxton point Housing project as a promising and lasting solution to housing shortage in Mombasa as well as key towards livelihoods in the region.

“I have been told that here in Buxton houses are available for as low as between Sh2.3 million to Sh4.7 million.

One may see these as expensive but you will realize that there are people driving vehicles worth Sh2 million but they are unable to own a house.

With the rate of housing units here in Buxton, it means that houses have been reduced to match a vehicle price. This is very encouraging for the government,” he said.