Ksh122B spent, but Ruto’s housing programme delivers less than half its target, report shows
Kenya’s affordable housing programme spent Ksh122.18 billion in the 2025/26 financial year but delivered less than half of its annual completion target, highlighting a gap between government spending and the pace of construction. The Controller of Budget’s National Government Budget Implementation Review Report shows that the Affordable Housing sub-programme achieved 24.5 per cent completion…
In the 2025/26 financial year, Kenya's affordable housing programme spent Ksh122.18 billion, but fell short of its annual target of completing 52% of the planned 217,654 housing units, only achieving 24.5%. This resulted in a deficit of 27.5 percentage points compared to the target as of June 30, 2026. Despite the shortfall, the programme absorbed 99% of its allocated budget, spending Ksh122.18 billion against a revised allocation of Ksh124 billion.
The Controller of Budget's report highlighted that the government's commitment to affordable housing as part of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) was reflected in the high budget absorption rate. However, the physical delivery figures were disappointing, with only 1,836 units completed and handed over, and another 1,380 units substantially complete but awaiting handover.
The programme had 103,251 units under construction and another 65,649 units at various stages of procurement, contract signing, site handover, and preliminary works. The large number of units at different stages of development contributed to the program's inability to meet the target. The Affordable Housing Fund, a separate government project, was allocated Ksh1.758 trillion and spent Ksh120.18 billion in the financial year, with a 15% completion rate.
The programme's performance was mixed, with the Kenya Urban Support Programme II (KUSP II) and Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement Project II (KISIP II) achieving high completion rates of 81% each. Other projects like Kenya Informal Settlement Redevelopment Project and Building Climate Resilience of the Urban Poor Programme had significantly lower completion rates.
Overall, the government successfully met its social housing targets, completing 4,536 social housing units and refurbishing 626 government housing units, exceeding the latter's target by two percentage points. However, the programme's physical delivery of affordable housing units remained below the annual target.
Written by urgent.news from People Daily Kenya's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
