Kenya 2019 census data has highlighted the dire need for affordable and decent housing in Kenya. While there has been remarkable progress in the real estate industry, the details of the Census have brought to light the disparity of housing projects across the country.
Despite economic milestones, many houses can’t do without cow dung and mud. According to the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census, cow dung accounts for 27.5 per cent of constructions in Kenya, while stones with lime or cement account for 16.5% of all the constructions.
For material used in constructing floors, concrete was reported to have drastically replaced sand and mud commonly used in rural areas. While most Kenyans own houses, according to the Survey, a majority have constructed these houses by themselves and the other handful have bought them or inherited them from their parents.
At a time when the government is spearheading the Big 4 Agenda which includes affordable housing, this survey comes in handy to help it come up with programs that will see folks living in rural areas benefit from the project to bridge the gap. The affordable housing program was to deliver at least 500000 housing units to Kenyans by 2020.
Its first phase was through the Boma Yangu Programme handed over 228 houses to Kenyans with prices of houses will range from between Sh1 million and Sh5 million for a one, two or three bedroomed house. With this pricing, owning a decent home for rural dwellers owning is far fetched and they will prefer to stick to cow dung and mud. UN-Habitat estimates that the housing deficit in Kenya is currently two million with only 25,000 mortgages against a population of 47 million. At the moment, there is a shortage of housing as less than 50,000 are being constructed per year.