President William Ruto will soon make refunds to the Housing Levy Fund for all the money used in the construction of markets, despite government assistance to divert the funds to other infrastructure projects like schools and markets.
This is according to COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli, who met with the President on Wednesday, June 18, to discuss several critical issues concerning the administration and use of the affordable housing levy fund.
In a statement after the high-level consultative meeting, Atwoli outlined six agreements met, including the refund of all funds used in this construction.
"All funds that have already been used to construct markets under the Affordable Housing Programme will be refunded to the Affordable Housing Levy Fund," the statement read.
Subsequently, a special committee will be constituted under the Affordable Housing Board, with representation from both national and county governments, to oversee the recovery and rechanneling of funds from already constructed markets back into the fund.
Furthermore, this construction of markets funded by the housing levy has also been suspended, except for 400 markets.
The government has also agreed that all associated physical and social infrastructure funded by the fund will be constructed within affordable housing projects only, except in special cases.
"In exceptional cases where an essential facility like a school cannot be built within a project, the Government may support a nearby facility to deliver services to the primary objective of the fund," the statement read.
The President also agreed that priority for houses built under the programme will go to salaried Kenyans who contribute to the fund.
All salaried workers will automatically be considered for allocation of housing units, excluding those eligible under the social class category.
To enhance affordability and access, the required deposit for those earmarked for allocation of housing units has also been reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent of the unit’s purchase price.
Over the past few weeks, the COTU Secretary General has been embroiled in a fight with the government over its use of the housing levy fund to construct social facilities instead of just houses, stating that it was bordering on mismanagement of the funds.
On June 7, Atwoli called for Ruto’s intervention to avert the potential crisis, with both sides accusing each other of perpetrating falsehoods.
