The National Housing Corporation’s plan to build 2,820 affordable houses in Athi River under the public-private partnership (PPP) model has flopped after the bidding firms failed to meet the pre-qualification test.
Disclosures by the National Treasury PPP Directorate show that the NHC, the project owner, found that none of the firms that had expressed an interest met the necessary conditions to bid.
NHC began plans to build the houses in a project dubbed Stoni Athi Affordable Housing in May last year. The project also entailed the construction of an additional 200 houses, priced at market rates.
The collapse of the pre-qualification bid threatens to derail NHC’s efforts to set up the houses as part of the government’s wider efforts to build hundreds of thousands of affordable houses.
“The Request for Qualification (RFQ) was re-issued on 20th May 2025 and closed in August 2025. The tender was non-responsive. Consultations are underway to determine the way forward,” the PPP Directorate says.
An RFQ, also known as Invitation for Expressions of Interest, allows a contracting authority (in this case, the NHC) to set the minimum requirements for any firm interested in the PPP deal.
An RFQ reduces the risk of a project failing, but an overly restrictive process may put off interested investors.
The project will be carried out in two phases, each with a two-year construction period and a one-year off-take period.
The PPP Directorate allowed NHC to proceed to appoint a private firm for the project in May last year.
NHC –the State entity tasked with developing low-cost houses to ease access to quality homes— did not disclose the estimated cost of this project.
The government is partly using the NHC to build some of the 250,000 affordable houses targeted for construction across the country annually.
NHC has previously said that 50 percent of the houses it will build under the government’s housing agenda will be under the affordable homes, 30 percent at market prices and the remaining 20 percent under the social housing.
The State-owned firm has built housing projects (residential and offices) in several parts of the country, including Athi River, Kisumu and Nyeri. The price of the residential units starts from Sh5.35 million, while the monthly rent is upwards of Sh20,000.
NHC plans to set up the affordable houses on 700 acres across the country, with the firm freeing up 650 acres, while counties will provide the remaining space.
Efforts by the NHC to sell some of its ready houses across Kenya have backfired, with an audit report revealing that the firm was stuck with hundreds of units valued at Sh1.27 billion as at June 2024.
