Kenneth Ogosia
12 August 2008
Nairobi — More than 2,000 houses will be demolished in various slums.
Housing minister Soita Shitanda on Tuesday said that the ministry had put in place a master plan for the construction of affordable houses in 90 urban centres countrywide.
In Nairobi, the ministry will build 600 houses in Kibera, 1,600 in Shauri Moyo, 445 in Mavoko, 800 in Ngara and 296 in Kileleshwa.
These will be occupied by those displaced from slums and civil servants whose dreams of buying the houses they are living in were shattered when the Cabinet cancelled a deal to sell them to sitting tenants a month ago.
He said the occupants would be allowed to lease out some rooms to help them pay the mortgage.
Mr Shitanda said the houses in Kibera would be occupied by residents of Soweto East whose shanties would be demolished to open up land for 1,000 high-rise houses.
"These old buildings will be demolished once new houses to accommodate people in Soweto East, Shauri Moyo, Starehe and Ngara are completed. Modern houses will then be built," Mr Shitanda said.
He said that displaced slum dwellers will occupy the high rise houses built under the Kenya slums upgrading programme while the civil servants housing scheme will cater for Government workers who will buy houses for as low as Sh500,000 through a mortgage scheme attracting interest of five percent.
Kenyans in the diaspora and foreign investors will benefit from a waiver in excise duty on building materials.
Mr Shitanda said money to repair blocked sewers, reconnect electricity in estates and restore sanitation standards in towns would be raised through an infrastructure fund of Sh500 million and the launch of housing bonds worth Sh5 billion.
A Housing Bill will be introduced to remove bottlenecks as currently, housing policies are run by the Public Works, Environment, Local Government, Nairobi Metropolitan and Public Health and Sanitation ministries.
The minister said new policies would drive crooked estate agents out of the market. He said Kenya was capable of upgrading its slums like Singapore, Malaysia, Egypt and the Asian tigers did.
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