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By Kipkorir Metet
The implementation of the Affordable Housing project is facing yet another legal hurdle as five activists moved to court seeking to stop its implementation.
Nakuru-based surgeon Dr Magare Gikenyi, Pauline Nduta, Philemon Abuga, Shallum Kaka, and Jamlick Otondi filed the suit at the High Court in Nairobi.
The five have named the CS Lands, CS Treasury, the Attorney General, the National Assembly, and the Senate as respondents in the case. The National Land Commission, Kenya Revenue Authority, Law Society of Kenya, and Kituo cha Sheria among others are named as interested parties.
Gikenyi, Nduta, Abuga, Kaka, and Otondi want the court to stop orders suspending the implementation of the Act.
Pyramid scheme
The Act they said is a pyramid scheme made to hoodwink Kenyans and enrich a few majorities who are controlling the affordable housing fund.
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“The objects of this Act are illegal, irregular, and irrational only aimed at personal gain to the few especially those proved at section 35 of the Act,” read the petition in part.
The fund according to them was established with a faulty legal framework and structures for implementation.
They claim the fund subjects employees and other income earners to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
“The fund has been established with faulty legal framework and structures for implementation, making its application a matter for the executive’s discretion and, therefore, making it susceptible to abuse in violation of the principles of public finance under Article 201 of the Constitution,” read the petition in part.
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They filed the case a day after President William Ruto signed to law the bill. Ruto signed it on Tuesday.
The Act was published in the Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 236 of December 4, 2023, and passed by the National Assembly with amendments on February 21, 2024. It was then passed by the Senate on March 12, 2024, and finally signed into law by the President on March 19, 2024.
The five in the court papers are also seeking temporary orders barring the government from evicting Kenyans from public land seemingly for purposes of the Affordable Housing Act.
They said the levy violates employees’ rights as it does not provide for interest to be earned on the contributions made by employees and employers.
There is no guarantee employees will benefit from the project
“The fund has been established without any basis in law, essentially making it a private fund that is being funded by public resources,” they stated.
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Employers they noted are not guaranteed they will benefit from the project.
“An individual’s salary is his or her private property under Article 40 as read together with Article 260 of the Constitution. Further and in particular, the tax is unreasonable and unconstitutional to the extent that it amounts to condemning workers to service mortgages for unknown houses they don’t need and will never own,” they stated.
The Act they said is blind to the fact that employers are already under a lawful obligation to provide accommodation to their employees or to pay sufficient money as rent, in addition to wages or salary paid.
END…
