Housing is enshrined in Article 43 of Constitution of Kenya 2010.
This means that each and every Kenya has a right to decent housing.
This is a very elusive right considering that many Kenyans live in shanties more especially in urban informal settlements.
The situation is the same even for many rural inhabitants in Kenya.
Grass-thatched huts
Just 20 years ago when I was growing up in rural Kenya, most homesteads started with a hut whose roof was made of some special type of grass.
There were special technicians who had mastered the art of putting final touches on the roof. These were highly respected ‘engineers’ who made sure we were sheltered from the elements of the weather.
The grass was sourced from specific areas especially on hill tops better know as “ekenyoru” then dried before being used in roofing huts.
Special ropes sourced from the bark of specific trees was used for holding the grass together for years. These trees such as wattle trees are in short supply nowadays.
Members of my community have a name for the wattle trees: ’emetandege’.
These are some of the practices which made our right to housing a reality at that time.
Now things have changed, many homes in the Kisii community have roofs made of iron sheets. Initially, the white ones were dominant. Now they are considered inferior to the colored and more durable ones.
This is a wind of change. Two decades ago if I was told to define the right to housing, I won’t talk about the current concrete structures which are mushrooming in many places.
Scarcity of land
In many parts of Kenya, land is quickly becoming inadequate largely due to population explosion and subsequent subdivision of land in many part of our motherland. Wherever there is private land, subdivision is prone to happen.
For instance, the Kisii people have a long-standing tradition of land sub division for inheritance purposes. This has led to small parcels of land which make engagement in any economic activities impossible.
Now people in their 50’s have land only enough for construction of just one house.
This means that our land resources have become inadequate and unable to serve the needs of all of us. This calls upon us to learn to call any part of the world our home.
If you find yourself in the Coast, Rift Valley, former Eastern, North Eastern, Western parts of these country learn to create a home there.
I believe when we run out of land resources as a factor of production, we are forced to adopt commerce and white collar jobs as our best alternatives.
We have many Kenyans from villages they own nothing but they actively participate in building the country’s economy through offering services by being doctors, teachers, drivers, carpenters, mechanics, cooks, engineers, pilots, politicians and even clergy men.
I know you are not supposed to become a man of the cloth for the objective of earning a livelihood. However, it happens that there are many who pursue it as a career. I have heard stories in the past of young men wanting to become priests just because there are numerous opportunities to pursue higher education at the seminaries around the world. That is life.
Why do people want to earn a loving in all the professions that they take? Simple. They want to have a good family. A good family, apart from love, boils down into have a secure roof over the heads of your family members. That is why the right to housing was enshrined in the supreme law of the land.
Housing is a component of a happy marriage
Whenever, young people are dating, one of the main factors that come into play is whether a groom has proper housing to accommodate the bride upon marriage.
If you have no proper housing, some families my refuse to accept your proposal for a hand in marriage. They usually label you as ‘poor’. Many families do not want to gamble the lives of their daughter to a poor man. Having said that, it is the role of our government to make sure every Kenyan has adequate housing.
How is that done?
One, the government should make sure that there is a conducive environment for adequate housing to be accessed.
For instance, the process of acquiring a construction plan is marred with corruption and is made expensive for no good reason.
I recently noticed that for your plan to be approved to construct a private permanent house, you must first have a title deed for the land upon which you plan to build the house. Therefore, if you lack security of land tenure, then adequate housing will be an elusive idea. What you can have on that land is the temporary houses made out of timber, mud and\or ironsheets.
I wonder what happens for community land regimes. Do they also face these obstacles in terms of regulatory requirements?
Cost of construction
The cost of construction is another factor which prohibits us from enjoying our right to housing. For instance, cement is retaking at around Ksh. 650 which is higher and can be reduced lower than that. Our government can start by reducing the cost of energy used by cement manufacturers in Kenya.
A couple of years ago, Aliko Dangote, an multi a billionaire Nigerian cement mogul expressed his intention to establish cement factories in East Africa. At that time it was indicated that Dangote cement would retail at around Ksh. 400 per bag. This would have been revolutionary for prospective home owners. These are the kind of investments we want our African governments to support if we are to enjoy our right to housing.
Written by:
Geoffrey Kerosi who is an economist, human rights advocate and a public policy analyst. You can contact him via email: Geoffrey.kerosi@gmail.com
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