In the article published by the Standard on Friday, February 7, the media outlet wrote that the affordable housing projects underway would mostly benefit government employees, dimming the hopes of many ordinary Kenyans in owning homes through the programme.
The PS took to twitter terming the article as unnecessarily sensational only intended to attract a large readership while displaying the government in a bad light.
“Totally sensational headlines published without context but I guess that’s what sells newspapers. First, this was an internal memo.
“The listed housing schemes are exclusively for civil servants,” wrote Mwaura.
The PS further accused the newspaper of failing to get correct information about the project indicating that the civil servants were only entitled to 40% of the low-cost units.
“For Parkroad, it’s land belonging to civil servants, they’ve provided the funding to start the AHP, what is lost in this noisy newspaper headlines is that the public is getting 60% of all the housing units.
“Those who are paying will be homeowners and you’ll still be tweeting negativity,” added Mwaura.
The Standard had earlier indicated that the PS wrote a circular to all civil servants stating that they write to show expression of interest for the houses by April 28.
In the letter sent to ministries and other government offices, the government listed over 1,000 units that are currently being developed in Nairobi, Kiambu, Embu and Kisumu counties that are available to civil servants.
The housing department also stated that the mentioned housing units would be completed before the end of the year 2020.
In December 2019, President Uhuru Kenyatta moved in to assure Kenyans of the government’s efforts to ensure housing is well checked into as part of the Big four agenda.
Kenyatta also indicated that the government would allocate 1,370 units of the first flagship affordable housing project at Park Road in Nairobi County.
The president further stated that other flagship projects in Shauri Moyo and Starehe in Nairobi county would be launched in early 2020 adding another 8,000 housing units when fully implemented.
“These projects are part of the larger Eastlands Urban Renewal master plan, which will bring online an additional 168,000 units. By replacing the decaying and dilapidated colonial era units, we will be able to generate modern 177,000 units from the existing 43,000 units,” remarked Kenyatta.
The President also assured that the resettlement of Kibera Zone B residents was also in the government’s plan to ensure the slum dwellers also get good houses aiming 4,400 households.