Kenya's affordable housing programme: 274,000 homes under construction, but completions lag 250,000-unit target
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Kenya's affordable housing programme has more than 274,000 homes under construction, yet completed units in 2025 stood at just over 7,000, far below President Ruto's original target of 250,000 homes a year.
Kenya's affordable housing programme completed 7,148 residential units in 2025, while more than 274,000 additional homes were under construction by August 2026, official data shows. The figures highlight a sharp increase in construction activity under President William Ruto's housing programme, but completed units remain well below the administration's original target of 250,000 homes each year.
The programme was introduced as a key part of Ruto's Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda following his election in 2022, with a pledge to build 250,000 homes annually, increase homeownership among low- and middle-income households and create jobs across the construction industry. Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that the State Department for Housing and Urban Development completed 6,738 units in 2025, up from 1,655 units the previous year, an increase of 5,083 units in one year.
KNBS put the value of the State Department's 2025 completions at Sh7.2 billion, compared with Sh4 billion in 2024. The National Housing Corporation completed a further 410 residential units valued at Sh941 million, bringing total residential completions recorded during the year to 7,148 units. The increase represents a significant rise from the previous year's output, though it remains far below the government's annual target.
Speaking during the Katiba Day commemoration on 27 August, Ruto said more than 274,000 affordable homes were under construction and that the programme had created more than 1.1 million jobs, including indirect employment in manufacturing, transport, building materials and small businesses. Earlier, Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga had cited an estimated 8,807 completed units and more than 270,000 units at different stages of construction as of 1 August 2026.
KNBS data as of December 2025 showed a total of 205,311 housing units valued at Sh500 billion under construction, with affordable housing accounting for 138,474 units valued at Sh385.8 billion. Social housing projects had 53,350 units under construction with an estimated cost of Sh81.8 billion, while institutional housing projects comprised 12,709 units valued at Sh28.6 billion.
The government argues the programme's benefits extend beyond the households that will eventually occupy the homes, pointing to more than 500,000 young people and over 5,500 graduate interns working in the programme, according to the President's remarks earlier this year. The programme has expanded geographically, with projects now underway across all 47 counties, but critics have questioned whether the Housing Levy, which deducts 1.5 per cent of an employee's gross salary with a matching employer contribution, places a direct burden on formal-sector workers who may never acquire one of the homes.
On the basis of completed units, the government remains some distance from its original annual target, though the rise from 1,655 units in 2024 to more than 6,700 in 2025 shows that the pace of completion has increased. The far larger number of units under construction suggests the government could substantially increase completed output if projects are delivered as planned.