President William Ruto has declared that his Kenya Kwanza administration will fully implement the controversial Housing Levy despite the legal challenges it is facing and opposition from the public.

Speaking at the Kenya International Convention Centre, Nairobi during the inaugural Kenya Diaspora Investment Conference, Ruto vowed to implement his affordable housing agenda as promised.

“This beautiful project was in the manifesto of Kenya Kwanza. The same housing project, complete with percentages of the levy, was also in the Azimio manifesto. But when it came to implementation, that is where the devil lives,” said the president.

He added: “Nobody wanted it implemented. We all want to talk about it, when hardly people mean it.”

The Head of State said Kenya would follow the route of the Asian Tigers in constructing affordable housing units to reduce the housing deficit, mainly among the low-income earners, in the country.

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“I am telling you this time round I am implementing it. And I am so determined because we must do it. Korea, Singapore and Malaysia did it and that is why they are ahead of us. We know what we must do but we cannot gather the courage to do it,” asserted Ruto.

Ruto vowed that he will do whatever it takes to realise the Kenya Kwanza housing by implementing the Affordable Housing Levy, which was halted by the High Court after facing varied legal challenges.

“But this time round, whatever it takes, we are going to implement it,” he barked.

Last Thursday, National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah tabled the Affordable Housing Bill 2023 in Parliament in a bid to rectify sections that the court termed unconstitutional.

In halting the implementation of the new legislation, a three-judge bench led by Justice David Majanja declared the 1.5 per cent housing levy on employees' gross salary as discriminatory.

The court had further ordered that Kenyans earning salaries continue remitting the controversial levy after the High Court granted stay orders barring the scrapping of the tax until January 10, 2024.