NAIROBI, Kenya, June 5 – National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has revealed that the government is actively considering a restructuring of the Affordable Housing Levy in response to growing concerns from salaried employees.
Mbadi, who spoke during a plenary session with senators on Wednesday, acknowledged that while the levy has notable benefits, its current implementation has triggered widespread discontent among workers.
“There is a discussion on seeing how to restructure it because it has a lot of serious benefits, in my view. But at the same time, individual employees with payslips have complaints that cannot be ignored,” he said.
The Affordable Housing Levy was introduced by the Kenya Kwanza administration in 2023 as part of President William Ruto’s flagship initiative to provide affordable housing to low- and middle-income Kenyans.
However, the mandatory deductions from workers’ salaries have faced criticism, particularly from formal sector employees who argue the levy is a financial burden.
Mbadi emphasized that the Treasury is already engaged in discussions to review the framework of the levy and promised that further details will be provided soon.
“A lot of restructuring is going on, and more pronouncements will come in due course.”
Under the initial terms, employees contribute 1.5 percent of their gross salary, matched by an equal amount from employers.
This means for every employee, a total of 3 percent of their gross salary goes to the housing levy—half from the employee and half from the employer.
