Ruto announces plan to ban export of unprocessed gold from Kenya

President William Ruto has defended Kenya's Affordable Housing Programme, arguing it serves a dual purpose beyond providing homes: it safeguards the nation's agricultural land from being divided into small residential plots. Speaking in Kisumu on Monday, September 14, 2026, Ruto warned that the fragmentation of farmland poses a long-term threat to food security.

"The Affordable Housing project allows us to get our land organised. Many people who would otherwise be living in towns have gone to subdivide agricultural land into small pieces," Ruto said. "So we run the risk of reducing the land we have today for food security; we reduce it to be used for housing. So Affordable Housing helps us to stop land fragmentation that creates a risk to our food security."

Ruto's remarks followed his ongoing development tour of Kisumu County, where he has been overseeing infrastructure projects and advocating for his administration's key initiatives. He emphasized that Kenya must balance rapid urbanization with the preservation of productive farmland. Many Kenyans unable to afford decent urban housing end up breaking up agricultural land into smaller plots for settlements, Ruto argued, risking a reduction in arable land needed for food production.

This line of reasoning echoes Ruto's previous statements since launching the Affordable Housing Programme in 2022, when he argued that higher-density urban housing could alleviate pressure on arable land while promoting orderly urban growth. The President's latest defense of the program is not the first time he has connected affordable housing to farmland protection.

In January 2024, during the launch of the Emgwen Affordable Housing Project in Nandi County, Ruto made a similar argument, stating that the program aims to prevent further fragmentation of agricultural land. "We want you to stop dividing land and live in Affordable Housing programme houses so that we can use the land you would have settled in to produce food and eradicate hunger," he said.

Ruto suggested during his Kisumu engagement that affordable housing should be part of a broader land management strategy, noting that organized urban development enables towns to accommodate growing populations without pushing housing demand into productive farming areas. Ruto has also consistently defended the program as an economic intervention aimed at creating jobs, supporting local manufacturing, and stimulating the construction sector.

The government's goal is to construct one million affordable housing units nationwide, with projects already underway in Nairobi, Kisumu, Machakos, Lamu, and other counties. In Kisumu, the Affordable Housing Programme has already produced major developments, including the LAPFUND Makasembo Affordable Housing Project, which delivered hundreds of housing units as part of a broader expansion plan.