Housing Policy in Kenya

A policy is a general statement or understanding

which guides or channels thinking in decision making
for the realization of (an) objective(s)/desire.

Objectives in housing - provide adequate suitable

housing for all.

ARRANGEMENTS FOR ACHIEVING THE OBJECTIVES IN

HOUSING

1. Kenya is a party to the International Covenant on

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

2. The convention obligates member states to take

steps to fulfill economic and social rights, among
them the right to adequate housing.

3. Kenya ratified the convention in 1972.

4. Article 11 of the 1966 ICESCR provides for “the right

of everyone to an adequate standard of living for
himself and his family, including adequate food,
clothing and housing, and to the continuous
improvement of living conditions.”
5. Article 43 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 states:

(1) Every person has the right-

(b) to accessible and adequate housing, and to
reasonable standards of sanitation;

6. The constitution remains the only law in Kenya that

explicitly safeguards the right to housing.

7. The Housing Act Cap. 117, Laws of Kenya provides

for the Creation of a National Housing Corporation
to coordinate and finance the development of
housing in Kenya, and creates a fund for the
purpose.

8. The Kenya Vision 2030: under Housing and

Urbanization:

9. The 2030 vision on housing and urbanization: "an

adequately and decently housed nation in
sustainable all inclusive environment".

10. Vision 2030 that remains the primary state policy

document on which government policy-making is
based.

11. While not explicitly linking policy to human rights,

Vision 2030 contains relevant aspects such as
 access to adequate social amenities, including
housing, water and sanitation infrastructure, in
addition to the need to improve human settlement
systems in general.

12. The Kenya Vision 2030 document sets out three

initiatives aimed at enhancing equity in accessing
adequate housing.

i). The Housing Development Initiative will be the

engine for the production of housing units
whose annual production rate ought to be
increased from 35,000 in 2008 to 200,000 by the
end of 2012.

ii). Second, the Mortgage Financing Initiative will

be set up to create a variety of housing
investment facilities which provide affordable
financing to large numbers of Kenyans to
enable them to buy their own homes.

iii). Third, Vision 2030 recommends the passage of

housing legislation to consolidate all housing
related legislation into one law.

13. The key policy document on housing is Sessional

Paper No. 3 on National Housing Policy of 2004. The
policy aims to “facilitate the provision of adequate
shelter and a healthy living environment at an
 affordable cost to all socio-economic groups in
Kenya.”

14. The policy objectives have the potential of

enhancing the realization of the right to adequate
housing by enhancing ownership of housing
through
i). expanded access to housing finance,
ii). promoting security of tenure for land for all
groups, particularly low-income earners.

15. Institutional framework for the implementation of

the housing policy:
i). Ministry of Housing, Planning and Urban
Development
ii). County governments
iii). National Housing Corporation
iv). The financial institutions which fund housing
development

Toward Housing Policies for Social and Economic

Development.

Need for housing arises from the basic need for

shelter. Demand for better standard housing arises
from peoples changing perceptions on their present
accommodations which may be due to:
a) A rising awareness of the benefits of improved
dwellings and neighbourhoods
b) Demonstration effect - people perceive the
advantages of better housing when they witness
others experiencing the change
c) Emulation effect - Keeping on with the Jones.
Migrants would want better
housing/accommodations if only to maintain or
attain status in a community where a broad
variety of housing types was available and visible.

Increasing Housing Allocations

The problem facing housing is the one facing other

human wants - finance. Expanding or saving finance
is what is required to alleviate the problems. The
crucial issue are

i. Expansion of savings
ii. Development of a financial system designed to
stimulate savings flows into mortgage lending
institutions.

Housing in developing countries will benefit from the

further development of financial institutions capable
of marshaling household savings help in such form
that they are likely to be invested in housing.
To tap household savings more effectively required a
network of institutions located in proximity of
population agglomerations, catering to small and
large savers, and offering a variety of saving plans.

Quantity of housing supplied can be increased in

essentially two ways. Resources can be shifted from
non-housing sectors to residential construction or unit
costs can be cut without augmenting resources
allocation to housing.

Reducing Housing Costs

If housing were produced and supplied at lower unit

costs, new dwellings could be built in larger numbers
without robbing health nutrition, education, or other
vital programs. Reduced wait costs may be achieved
through:-

 Application of technology without sacrificing the

quality of the product
 The construction of dwellings of lower quality.

Savings Through Technology

Governments at various levels can retard or promote

technical change through building and similar codes,
through import export policies and domestic wage
policies. Central governments can also influence
building technology by devoting resource to
technical research and its dissemination and
providing funds for experimentation e.g. operation
breakthrough, US 1960 and unsuccessful attempt to
break through the housing cost barrier by
rationalizing and modernizing production. Other
attempt – industrialized buildings.

Note: Foolish technological or component imports

often lead to cost increases rather than cost
savings e.g. importation of precast concrete
walls from Holland to Ghana raised costs by 60-
80%

Note: Savings through adopting appropriate

technology where labour is scarce, use capital
intensive methods and vice versa to generate
low costs per unit.

Savings Through Quality Reduction

Means or methods reducing the quantity of

habitable space, designing it more tightly or more
efficiently, providing communal areas for cooking,
washing and bathing rather than individual areas in
each unit for these activities and sharing common
walls. It many require building vertically rather than at
lower intensity to reduce land coverage, or providing
communal outdoors gardens and play areas rather
than individual plots tied to individual dwellings.

Policy concentration on minimal betterment for the

many instead of standard dwellings for the few is
consistent with optimal economic development
policies since volume construction of standard would
require such huge allocation of resources that other
investments vital for development would suffer.

Despite the enormous size of the statistical housing

deficit, there are few families the world over who do
not have some kind of shelter. Only quality is out of
tune with the standards set by public agencies and
lacks the amenities taken for granted in advanced
societies.

Due to the differences in rates of population growth

in developed and developing countries, the greatest
need for additions to the housing stock exists in the
countries least able to respond.

Housing Policy in Developing Countries

One type of policy more or less emulates

programmes of the advanced nations though it
adapts them to local conditions.
a) Improving the financial structure supporting the
housing sector by creating or strengthening
public and private mortgage lending institutions.
b) In some cases, general development banks
participate directly in the financing of housing
c) Government guarantees or mortgage loans have
been introduced
d) Public support has been given to the
establishment of savings and loan associations
e) Embankment of social housing programmes
funded and subsidized mostly by the central
government and based on various European
models.

In terms of standards and type of construction, the

public housing projects usually represent a veritable
leap into the future in comparison with the stock of
dwellings available to the vast majority of the
population.

Guidelines for Policy in Developing Nations

1) In view of the difficulty of major reallocations of

scarce resource in favour of housing and lack of
success by the poor to the market, policy should be
directed at a more efficient and more equitable
intrasector allocation of resources presently
devoted to housing. This means more emphasis in
public programs on truly low-cost low-quality
 housing, for what is low quality in this case would
raise the quality of housing for the majority of the
population

2) In view of the failure of most efforts to reduce the

cost of housing in developing countries through a
leap into advanced technology, it is more realistic
to encourage small but continuous technical
improvements and the application of intermediate
technologies. The resulting economics would still be
insufficient to bring standard construction within the
reach of most. Hence if public programs are to
benefit broad segments of the population, the
alternative is to reduce the quality of new dwellings
from the western type standards adopted in most
developing countries until recent years.

3) Greater emphasis on low-quality, low-cost housing

would also meet employment objectives, a matter
of first priority in developing countries. This type of
housing generates more employment per unit of
investment than does higher cost standard
construction, and it absorbs more unskilled labour.

4) Similarly, the income multiplier of housing, while not

the largest among all alternatives, is fairly
substantial, paralleling the employment multipliers,
tends to run higher per unit invested in lower-cost
housing. Moreover, housing generates additional
 income when it is used also as a place of
economic activity, a not infrequent combination in
the temporary settlements of LDCs

5) On the regional level, better housing seems to be

at best a modest factor in peoples decision to
move or not to move. Hence a policy of regional
redistribution of population must emphasize jobs
rather than expect a great deal from the offer of
supervision dwellings. At the local level, however
the special relationship between residence and
workplace is not only important to workers but
require careful attention by public agencies to
minimize unemployment unwillingly generated by
residential dislocation from slum clearance. Alos,
subsidy schemes should be designed and
administered so as to avoid inhibiting labour
mobility.

6) Among the various alternatives for producing truly

low cost housing in quantities approximating the
urgent needs of developing nations, self-help and
sites and service schemes haul the greatest
promise. Both offer substantial economies through
the utilization of inexpensive, locally available
resources.

7) The proposed solutions have the great advantage

of building on actions already taken by low-
 income people themselves in squatter settlements.
The government supported projects of this type,
though mostly experimental, provide a valuable
record of experience that should be thoroughly
evaluated. Participation by occupants in the many
complicated stages leading to the completion of a
dwelling of one's own carries with it a life
experience impossible to match in conventional
housing programs.

LAND AS AN INVESTMENT

1. Fixed stock
2. Inexpensive to own and hold
3. Not perishable
4. Does not depreciate
5. Capacity for enormous value growth through
time and status change
6. Many user options
7. Divisible

Methods of Investing in Land

1. Buy, hold, sell (land banking)
2. Buy, plan, sell
3. Buy, plan, subdivide, sell
4. Buy, develop, sell
Outline of factors effecting the supply and demand
for land for building;

1. Location
2. Price
3. Characteristics / Suitability for development
4. Access
5. Infrastructure
6. Availability of credit
7. Cost of credit / interest rates
8. Availability of alternative investments and
their profitability
9. Population
10. Income levels
11. Household formation
12. Population movements/demographics
13. Speculation drivers
The role of housing in achieving Millennium
Development Goals
 Residential activities can provide job
opportunities and income and thereby
allow urban poor to invest in food and other
Goal 1: basic needs.
Eradicate  Residential activities improve a nation’s
poverty & wealth (e.g. Taxes & savings) and allow
hunger governments and agencies to invest in
social oriented programmes to reduce
poverty.

 Improved, and access to, housing in

Goal 2: appropriate locations lowers absenteeism
Achieve from school.
universal  Secure tenure allows parents to engage in
primary income-generating activities allowing them
education to cater for educational expenses.

Goal 3:  Secure tenure contributes to household

Promote stability and provides women with a
gender peaceful atmosphere to engage in
equality & economic-generating activities.
empower  Good housing reduces stress and
women contributes to women’s productivity.

Goal 4:  Good housing and related services (e.g.

Reduce child water, electricity, and sanitation) reduces
mortality the risk of disease among children.

Goal 5:  Improved housing lowers the risk of illness for

Improve women.
maternal  Secure tenure reduces stress, especially for
health women.
 Safeguards nurturing of the young.

 Access to housing reduces homelessness

and risks of social vices associated with
Goal 6: living on the street.
Combat  Good housing brings comfort, reduces
HIV/AIDS, overcrowding, and limits the transmission of
malaria, & communicable diseases (e.g. tuberculosis).
other diseases It also facilitates and enhances care-giving.
 Health conditions depend largely on good
living environment.

 Good housing conditions and related

services contribute to a good environment
and improvement in the lives of slum-
dwellers.
 Use of environmentally-friendly building
Goal 7: Ensure materials, including energy-efficient
environmental materials, contributes to environmental
sustainability protection.
 Good housing and urban design are
cornerstones for mitigating ecological
footprints of settlements and reducing
vulnerability to climate change.

Goal 8:  Partnership between national government

Develop a and international development agencies
global creates synergy and reduces vulnerability to
partnership for climate change.
development  Partnership between national government
and international development agencies
for housing ensures realistic policies and
programmes and sharing of best practices.
 Programmes that involve partnerships
among national governments, international
development agencies, local communities,
and slum-dwellers have a better chance of
long-term sustainability.

Credit: Tibaijuka, A. (2009) Building Prosperity – Housing and Economic Development,

Earthscan: London