State keen on making affordable housing successful – Njeru

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State keen on making affordable housing successful - Njeru
State keen on making affordable housing successful - Njeru

Africa-Press – Kenya. Lands and Housing CS Zechariah Njeru has said the government is committed to ensuring the affordable housing programme is successful. He urged Kenyans to ignore the political critics on the project and instead help the government to achieve the objective.

He spoke on Friday during the second session of United Nations Habitat Assembly at the UN Headquarters Gigiri in Nairobi. The CS said it was time to act adding that the country’s rapid urbanisation of 4.2 per cent has not been matched in the development of urban housing and infrastructure.

“We cannot bury our heads in the sand, as the CS in charge of this programme, I’m assuring Kenyans and the world that a few years from now, Kenya will be a success story in how to implement affordable housing schemes just like Singapore is at the moment,” he said.

Njeru called on his counterparts from across the African continent to give urban areas the attention they deserve. He said their growth has escalated global warming through rapid consumption of fossil fuels.

Njeru further said the poor living in the urban have a low resilience in the face of climate issues that have disrupted their livelihoods. The CS added that Kenya is implementing Building Climate Resilience for the urban poor project as the number of vulnerable urban areas is rising in the country.

Urbanisation in the country has been rapid resulting in an alarming backlog of about two million houses which are affordable and unavailable. Kenya’s estimated annual urban housing demand is 250,000 units against an annual urban supply of 50,000 which mostly targets high end market.

Njeru said the government is also planning to increase the number of Kenyans with mortgages to more than a million up from the current mark of less than 30,000.

Over the week, Njeru held a series of talks with his counterparts from South Africa, Egypt, Malaysia, Tanzania, Malawi, Qatar, Venezuela, Cameroon, Colombia, Ethiopia and United Arab Emirates.

They committed to collaborate with Kenya towards housing and urbanisation matters, slum upgrading and land digitisation. Speaking on Friday during the talks, Cameroon Minister for Housing and Urban Development Celestine Ketcha-Courtes said all citizens have a responsibility to participate in the project.

“What we plant today is what our grandchildren will harvest. Let us collaborate and exchange ideas for the sake of tomorrow,” she said. Present for the session were UN-Habitat Assembly Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif, CSs Simon Chelugui (MSMEs) and Peninah Malonza (Tourism).

Others present were urbanisation ministers from various countries including Angeline Mabula (Tanzania), Deus Gumba (Malawi), Catalina Velasco(Colombia), Fenta Dejen Wudu (Ethiopia) and Mmamoloko Kubayi (South Africa).

Also present during the talks were Ambassador of Qatar Jabor Al Dosari represented the Qatar Minister and the General Secretary for United Cities and Local Governments(UCLG) Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi.

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