Opinion - Kenya’s Affordable Housing Push: Ruto’s Singapore Dream is a Visible Reality

Kenya, 31 December 2025 - President William Ruto’s affordable housing programme has become one of the most visible—and contested—pillars of his administration, reshaping skylines across major towns as he openly speaks of modelling Kenya’s urban future on the Singapore experience.

Ruto has repeatedly framed housing as both a social right and an economic engine.

“Decent housing is not a privilege for the few; it is a right for every Kenyan,” he has said when defending the programme, describing it as a foundation of his Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda. In his vision, mass public housing is not just about roofs over heads, but about remaking cities, creating jobs, and restoring dignity to low-income workers.

The comparison to Singapore is deliberate. Like the Asian city-state, Ruto wants Kenya to pursue high-density, well-planned urban housing supported by transport, utilities and social services.

“If Singapore did it with limited land and resources, Kenya can do it too,” he has argued, pointing to the Housing Development Board (HDB) model that turned Singapore into a nation of homeowners.

Across Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and Kisumu, large construction sites signal how that vision is translating into concrete and steel. Informal settlements and underutilised public land are being converted into multi-storey estates, complete with roads, drainage, lighting and green spaces. Supporters say the visual impact alone marks a turning point in how Kenyan cities are planned.

Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga, the technocrat charged with delivering the programme, insists the transformation goes beyond aesthetics.

“This is about jobs, savings and inclusion,” Hinga has said, noting that housing construction has created thousands of jobs for artisans, engineers and suppliers. He argues that the programme deliberately targets workers who have long been locked out of mortgage financing.

“We are designing products for the mama mboga, the security guard, the young graduate—people the market ignored for decades.”

Hinga also defends the controversial housing levy, saying it provides a predictable funding base.

“You cannot plan at scale without sustainable financing,” he has said, adding that contributors benefit through job creation, infrastructure and access to affordable units.

The government’s ambition is to deliver hundreds of thousands of housing units annually, narrowing a national deficit estimated at over two million homes.

Officials say this will also reduce the growth of slums, ease pressure on urban infrastructure, and support long-term economic productivity.

Yet the programme has attracted sharp criticism, both political and economic. Some critics question whether the houses are truly affordable.