National Assembly begins public hearings on Affordable Housing Bill across 19 counties

The National Assembly is set to commence public hearings on the Affordable Housing Bill, 2023 across 19 counties this week.

The House through the Departmental Committees on Finance and National Planning and that on Housing, Urban Planning and Public Works, has lined up public meetings to jointly collect views from the public on the Bill starting Wednesday for two weeks.

The scheduled hearings will see the legislators visit Narok, Embu, Kisii, Kirinyaga, Homabay, Kiambu, Vihiga, Machakos, Uasin Gishu and Turkana Counties.

Other devolved units where lawmakers will collect views include Baringo, Nairobi, Wajir, Nakuru, Nyandarua, Tana River, Kilifi, Nairobi and Mombasa Counties.

The Affordable Housing Bill 2023 has already undergone the First Reading.

The project has been at the core of President William Ruto's first year in office despite numerous legal challenges and opposition from various stakeholders.

The affordable housing fund is gross-on-gross taxation on workers' income where the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) uses the same gross to also calculate the Pay As You Earn. Every employee contributes 1.5 per cent, matched by a similar percentage by the employer.

But as the government sought an extension of the order pending the appeal, other parties including the Opposition, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), Katiba Institute as well as Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah opposed the application.

Win for government

However, the President last week scored a win after the Court of Appeal allowed the government to continue collecting the housing levy, until January 26 when the court will decide whether to lift the order or grant a further extension.

A bench of three judges of the appellate court directed the status quo prevailing to be maintained until then, when they will rule on the application by Attorney General Justin Muturi seeking further collection of the levy, pending the determination of an appeal on the legality of the levy.

The High Court quashed the levy on November 28 for being discriminatory but suspended the judgment until January 10, to allow the government to pursue an appeal.

The Affordable Housing Bill (National Assembly Bill No. 75 of 2023), sponsored by the National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah, seeks to provide a legal framework for the establishment of the Affordable Housing Fund, access to affordable housing and to give effect to Article 43(1)(b) of the Constitution on the right to accessible and adequate housing.

The Bill further seeks to impose the Affordable Housing Levy to finance the provision of affordable housing and associated social and physical infrastructure.

While defending the project, Ichung’wah noted that the orders by the High Court only apply in respect of the conduct of public participation in the manner indicated in the public participation advert issued on December 9, 2023, on submission of memoranda but they did not entirely halt the public participation process.

“The orders did not prohibit Parliament from conducting any other form of public participation including undertaking public hearings across the country on the Bill, or the ordinary stakeholder engagements with key sectors, experts, workers, employers, informal sector, political parties, civil society and marginalized communities etc,” he observed.