- A major legal hurdle facing the government’s housing programme has been cleared
- Questions over how the housing programme is funded have been settled by the court
- The ruling also addresses concerns surrounding land set aside for housing projects
The Court of Appeal has dismissed a raft of legal challenges against the Affordable Housing Act, 2024, handing the government a decisive win in its push to fund and deliver low-cost housing nationwide.
A five-judge bench delivered the ruling on Friday, September 25, 2026, throwing out 42 consolidated petitions that had sought to have the law, and the 1.5 per cent housing levy it created, struck down as unconstitutional. The judges found no merit in the appeal and declined to award costs, citing the public interest nature of the dispute.
Among those behind the legal fight were Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah and Nakuru-based surgeon Dr Magare Gikenyi, who had argued that the law breached constitutional rights, undermined devolution, threatened property rights and was passed without adequate public participation.
President William Ruto signed the Affordable Housing Act into law in March 2024 at a State House ceremony, cementing the levy as a central pillar of his housing agenda even as it drew sustained pushback from critics.
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The ruling upholds an earlier decision by a three-judge High Court bench, which found in 2024 that the Act had been properly enacted and that Kenyans had been sufficiently consulted before its passage. That bench also dismissed claims that the levy amounted to double taxation or unfair discrimination against salaried workers.
On the question of public land, the appellate judges affirmed that the National Land Commission must approve any land earmarked for housing projects, warning that allocations made without its sign-off would be unlawful. They stopped short, however, of ruling on hypothetical future misuse of land, saying such claims were speculative.
The court also reaffirmed the legality of deducting 1.5 per cent from workers’ gross salaries and self-employed Kenyans’ gross income to fund the programme, rejecting arguments that the law’s provisions were too vague to enforce.
With the ruling now in place, the government retains a firmer legal footing to keep collecting the levy and rolling out housing units. Officials at the Ministry of Housing have previously acknowledged that the levy alone is unlikely to fully finance the government’s ambitious target of 200,000 units a year, pointing to the need for additional funding sources even as construction continues.
By Benedict Aoya
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