Kenya's affordable housing drive delivers 1,836 units despite Sh122 billion spending

Kenya's affordable housing programme spent Sh122.2 billion in the 2025-26 financial year but delivered far fewer homes than planned, according to the Controller of Budget's National Government Budget Implementation Review Report for FY2025-26.

The report shows the affordable housing sub-programme had a revised development expenditure of Sh120.18 billion, with a further Sh2 billion spent elsewhere in the programme. Despite absorbing 99 per cent of its budget, the programme achieved only 47 per cent of the physical progress it had targeted.

Against an annual target of 52 per cent completion of works on 217,654 housing units, only 24.5 per cent was achieved by June 30, a shortfall of 27.5 percentage points. Just 1,836 units were completed and handed over during the year, although more were reported as substantially complete and awaiting handover.

The report puts 103,251 units under construction and a further 65,649 at stages ranging from procurement and contract signing to site preparation. The programme has a total estimated value of Sh1.758 trillion, with cumulative expenditure reaching Sh188.36 billion by June 2026, including the Sh120.18 billion spent during the 2025-26 financial year.

The State Department for Housing and Urban Development received a revised allocation of Sh147.91 billion, up sharply from Sh82.44 billion in FY2024-25. Construction and civil works were the second-largest category of national government spending, with the department recording the highest outlay at Sh113.64 billion.

Officials attributed the shortfall to the slower implementation of housing projects, saying many remained at different stages of construction and preparation. The government separately reported that 4,536 social housing units had been completed and 626 government houses refurbished.