Affordable housing conundrum: We must learn from other global models

Affordable Housing

A view of the Eldoret Railway City Affordable Housing Project under construction in Eldoret City, Uasin Gishu County on April 20, 2026.

Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group

The Affordable Housing Levy has become one of Kenya’s most contested fiscal policies. While the government presents it as a pillar of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda, many employees see it as another mandatory deduction shrinking already stretched pay packets.

Housing is a basic right and central to people’s lives. As John F. Kennedy observed in a 1946 speech on housing, “The home is the central unit of the community, the state, and the nation.” That principle still applies today.

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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.