Nairobi — A housing sector activist is demanding prudent utilization of housing taxes to build decent and affordable houses in informal settlement as the world marked UN Habitat Day.
Grassroots Trust for community organization coordinator Lawrence Apiyo said dwellers in slums deserve decent housing units.
Apiyo proposed that the housing tax should be revisited to ensure proper structures are put in place for effective implementation of the government's affordable housing agenda.
"We want the government to focus more on the low-income category of society in building adequate affordable housing in the country," Apiyo said.
Apiyo who is also the coordinator of national housing rights coalition said the government policy on housing is a brilliant idea but must be executed within the law that targets the intended group.
Speaking to the press in Kisumu on Monday as Kenya joined the world to celebrate the day, Apiyo noted that at the current situation, the housing tax money is being used to finance otter sectors.
"If you ask where the tax money for housing is, you won't get an answer, we want structures on how to spend that money," he said.
Apiyo proposed that the government should consider establishing an independent housing financing entity to handle the implementation of the housing project.
He says a financing Bank should be established to finance the affordable housing to give Kenyans that ample opportunity to pursue their dreams to own houses.
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The coordinator further asked for a top to forceful eviction of slum dwellers but dialogue was given a chance so as to assure the victims of safer passage.
"We have seen where evictions have been done, houses came up with a pretext that they will be given the first priority, never to be," he said.
He gave examples of Makasembo and Anderson estates in Kisumu and Buxton and Ngara in Nairobi, where evictions were done but residents have been sidelined in the whole process.
The planning of unplanned settlements, he said, should be participatory from the start to the end.
He added that public land released for housing must not end up being privatized as he welcomed the recent United Nations Habitat General Assembly decision to prioritize housing.
Apiyo however laughed off President William Ruto's remarks that Kibra will be an estate in the next 10 years, terming it impracticable.
