This archive report was first published on 9 July 2020.
On July 9, 2020, Kenya announced plans to adopt the World Bank's green housing standards for its affordable housing programme. The move aims to combat climate change and promote low-carbon housing developments.
According to Charles Hinga, Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works, the programme will adopt the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) green housing standards. Specifically, the EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) green building certification programme will be the minimum standard for the design of affordable, climate-friendly homes.
"The standard entails a 20 per cent less energy, less water and less embodied energy in materials compared to a base case building as estimated within the EDGE software," Hinga explained.
The affordable housing programme aims to build 500,000 low-income housing units by the end of 2022. To achieve this goal, the government has signed an agreement with seven private investors to construct 130,000 affordable houses. The investors have committed to building environmentally friendly houses to assist Kenya in mitigating and adapting to the negative effects of climate change.
However, the real estate sector has been reluctant to enter into the affordable housing space due to various challenges, including the high cost of land and complex land tenure system.
