Fortune thinks kenya is headed for good times.

[gout]

I always see mzungu especially in US building their own houses .... or is it only on TV?

Though most folks in rural areas do build their own houses

[Georgesoros]

Aoountability is the biggest issue in the society. They need to hire sleuths who are excons to show them how money is siphoned out of the coffers and the use the info to charge the cons. EACC is a rubber stamp agency that has been politicize.

[Mr Mansfield.]

Gov has so little money

And there is just no money to turn the hovels of kibera into shiny middle class crip...not that living in one..without real income from real economic activities..will suddenly transform us to middle class.

(1) Financing (money) is available,Eurobond was oversubscribed 8X,so much idle capital there gov can tap,

(2) Economic activity,The housing units will be built in like a 5year plan which creates employment sustainability and expand middle class/income secondly steel cement wood energy quarries financial & professional services transport etc etc would boom,

Without Prejudice.

[Ka-Bella]

What do you consider "core"?    After food, I can't think of a more basic requirement than shelter.  Where I live, the expected norm is that the government will make available sufficient low-cost housing to those who need it.

Are you kidding? Even the USA cannot provide shelter to all its people or they would not have so many homeless needing to be temporarily sheltered during the winter. Are you comparing a Scandinavian country to a third-world African country and complaining that the African country cant provide what the first world country can? Honestly, sometimes diasporans come off sounding like such spoilt children!

[MOON Ki]

Are you kidding? Even the USA cannot provide shelter to all its people or they would not have so many homeless needing to be temporarily sheltered during the winter. Are you comparing a Scandinavian country to a third-world African country and complaining that the African country cant provide what the first world country can? Honestly, sometimes diasporans come off sounding like such spoilt children!

Don't be silly.   There is absolutely no reason why the government cannot make a better effort to provide low-cost housing to those who need it.   Unless you were born yesterday, you might want to look at housing estates in most Kenyan towns in the 1960s and 1970s.  Practically, a lot could be achieved if there was less theft of government money, with much of it getting stashed away overseas.   (Focus on the "better effort", as opposed to doing bugger-all.)

On "diasporans come off sounding like such spoilt children", I am in fact only encouraging what the Constitution of Kenya states.  And, as far as I know that was written by Kenyans in Kenya and voted for by Kenyans in Kenya.  (I had no part in any of that.)  I refer you to   the Bill of Rights in that document:   

Article 43. (1) housing, and to reasonable
standards of sanitation;

Which part of that do you find problematic?  Should we just instead remind people that Kenya is not part of Scandinavia?

Even the USA cannot provide shelter to all its people or they would not have so many homeless needing to be temporarily sheltered during the winter.

Please explain the logic.   Homeless people can be homeless for a variety of reasons.    If you wish to argue that the USA cannot ---your chosen word---house its homeless, then the logical path is this: come up with estimate of the number of homeless people in the USA; estimate what it would cost to provide them with housing; then argue that, for whatever reason, the USA cannot afford to do that. Simply saying that "there are homeless people, so aha!" is rather lame.

[Mr Mansfield.]

Building 500,000 housing Units is pretty simple,

Government looks for 500BN loan to build the 500K units,Under this arrangement,the repayment period should be a 20year plan at a concessional rate of 5% annually so in 20years the total amount to be repaid will be 1TN,

The government pays half the amount while the wananchi who reside in the houses pay the other half,annually the owners of the house pay 25BN while gov pays 25BN as you can see the owner of the house will be paying 50K per year that is about 4100/-bob monthly and gov will not have a debt problem...that's what we call subsidized housing,

If such a project is done 50KM from the city in ukambani and maasai land,it will decongest Nairobi city and gov will also be able to build a mass urban transit towards the city while the capital becomes a business hub not a slum dwelling,

That way you will turn Kenya into a New York or Tokyo in a five year plan,

With the Kenya urban population set to cross 50% mark after 2030 the project can be ongoing and can stimulate economic growth in equitable sense while the model can be replicated elsewhere,such a project won't even affect gov plan,

Failure to do that,Kenya will become a very big slum in the near future,

Without Prejudice.

[MOON Ki]

Mr. Mansfield:

The model you suggest is an excellent one that has been shown to work where the will and planning existed.   

For other stuff:

UN-HABITAT, which has its base in Nairobi!, has devoted a lot of effort trying to convince people (i.e. mostly governments) that mass affordable housing does not require large financial resources from governments or that what is required has to all come from governments (as opposed to, say, the government providing the right incentives and so on.)    A sample from their website:

"Unfortunately, especially in the developing world, supply is often limited by inadequate governance systems and human resource deficiencies, as well as by institutions and regulations which are either obsolete or lacking in capacity, or are poorly informed. So far, the failure of urban planning and the construction sector in matching demand for homes has resulted in a huge housing backlog that has led to the development of slums in a variety of contexts globally."

One of key international figures in the push for global housing is Sangeeth Ram of the McKinsey Global Institute.     He has written and talked a great deal about these things. Here is a video in which, among other things, he talked about the costs.

[Ka-Bella]

Are you kidding? Even the USA cannot provide shelter to all its people or they would not have so many homeless needing to be temporarily sheltered during the winter. Are you comparing a Scandinavian country to a third-world African country and complaining that the African country cant provide what the first world country can? Honestly, sometimes diasporans come off sounding like such spoilt children!

Don't be silly.   There is absolutely no reason why the government cannot make a better effort to provide low-cost housing to those who need it.   Unless you were born yesterday, you might want to look at housing estates in most Kenyan towns in the 1960s and 1970s.  Practically, a lot could be achieved if there was less theft of government money, with much of it getting stashed away overseas.   (Focus on the "better effort", as opposed to doing bugger-all.)

On "diasporans come off sounding like such spoilt children", I am in fact only encouraging what the Constitution of Kenya states.  And, as far as I know that was written by Kenyans in Kenya and voted for by Kenyans in Kenya.  (I had no part in any of that.)  I refer you to   the Bill of Rights in that document:   

Article 43. (1) housing, and to reasonable
standards of sanitation;

Which part of that do you find problematic?  Should we just instead remind people that Kenya is not part of Scandinavia?

Even the USA cannot provide shelter to all its people or they would not have so many homeless needing to be temporarily sheltered during the winter.

Please explain the logic.   Homeless people can be homeless for a variety of reasons.    If you wish to argue that the USA cannot ---your chosen word---house its homeless, then the logical path is this: come up with estimate of the number of homeless people in the USA; estimate what it would cost to provide them with housing; then argue that, for whatever reason, the USA cannot afford to do that. Simply saying that "there are homeless people, so aha!" is rather lame.

Why don't you explain your own logic in comparing us to the first world country in which you live and the "expectations" that people over there have? I don't have to attend primary school or watch CNN to figure that the expectations of people in a developed country will differ "a tad" from those of people in very poor countries. Ati...where you live...this is what people expect. You sound like a braggart. How is that relevant to poor countries? Hello, might there be major reasons (like lots more dollars!) that this is so? Perhaps those countries can afford to give away "free" housing to everyone now that they dealt with poor institutionalism, insecurity, malaria (whatever their health ssues were), education, employment, basic infrastructure already.

[MOON Ki]

Why don't you explain your own logic in comparing us to the first world country in which you live and the "expectations" that people over there have? I don't have to go to primary to know that the expectations of people in a developed country will differ "a tad" from those of people in very poor countries. You sound like a braggart. Ati "...where I live...this is what people expect" Hello, might there be major reasons (like lots more dollars!) that this is so? Greater level of development? Perhaps those countries can afford to give away "free" housing to everyone now that they dealt with insecurity, malaria (whatever their health ssues were), education, employment, basic infrastructure already?

As I tried to point out, it is Kenyans, living in Kenya, who have decided that they are entitled to decent housing.   They put that in their constitution, which they voted for, right in there with their declarations of rights to education, health care, and so forth.  If you have a problem with that, you need to talk to the Kenyans who came up with and voted for that constitution.   You will have to explain to those Kenyans (and their constitution) how "the expectations of people in a developed country will differ "a tad" from those of people in very poor countries".   

And there is no bragging involved.   I believe that next to food, there is nothing as urgently needed as shelter; with food and shelter, one can do  manage with little of other things.   So I am happy to live in a place where people already accept what Kenyans are starting to demand through their constitution.   

Lastly, you have still not addressed the logical flaws in your reasoning. Perhaps it will help if I explain it to you: the mere fact that something is not being done should not lead one to conclude that it cannot be done. So, try again. 

Hello, might there be major reasons (like lots more dollars!)

This is one of the myths that is very problematic.   Please try to do a bit on homework on what really can be done in terms of affordable mass housing.   And get beyond this idea that only rich wazungus should have decent housing.   Kenyans, people in the rest of Africa, and so on ... they too deserve it.  What's more they can get it!  That's one of the biggest  point that organizations like UN-Habitat are trying to get across.

[Ka-Bella]

@Moonki, mine is not at all a belief that only Wazungus or anyone "should" have anything.

Mine is about whether we CAN have what they have today at the level of development we are @. Comparing us with them at this point makes little sense. It would've been better if you compared us with countries with similar potential (as ours) that nonetheless manage to do so much better than we do. That we put it in our constitution doesn't mean we can just wave our hands and have it, it's not like the constitution came along with a genie to grant us all our wishes. Some of those rights will take time to make their way up the ladder because they cost quite a bit. This would be true even if we had a willing and responsible government, which is a different discussion.

I figure you are of the philosophy that places political rights at par with the socio-economic rights. I do believe in both but I think it is idealistic and utopian to hold all countries to the same standard regarding the latter, knowing very well that they don't all have the same economic muscle and are unequal development-wise. It is therefore to be expected that they will have different priorities in their national planning and budgeting at any one point.

I didn't say the fact that we don't do it means automatically that it is impossible. It's just impossible RIGHT NOW! You spoke of it as if to suggest that just because it's in the constitution (or expected as a matter-of-course in the first world), everyone in the slum can demand better housing courtesy of the government today. Even if we speak of them all as rights, there is a difference in how we treat them, some are more immediate and easily (and unconditionally) guaranteed than others. Some depend on how much we have to spend after non-negotiables like minimum government, security, schools, basic health centres and basic infrastructure.