Ministry proposes to build houses for 30,000 teachers

Some of the houses handed over to the civil servants by the Minister for Housing Mr Soita Shitanda on May 5, 2010. Photo/FILE 

By MUCHIRI GITONGA mgitonga@ke.nationmedia.comPosted Sunday, January 16 2011 at 19:06

The Ministry of Housing plans to set up a fund to provide more than 30,000 teachers with decent and affordable housing.

The fund, which will be modelled on the lines of the Civil Servants Housing Scheme Fund, will give teachers access to affordable mortgages to buy houses built by the ministry.

Housing Minister Soita Shitanda has already written to Teachers Service Commission secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni inviting him to take part in discussions between his ministry and the Treasury.

“My ministry is willing to assist in developing the scheme provided the TSC, as the employer, participates in discussions with the Treasury on funding for the scheme,” the minister said in a letter to the TSC on December 14.

The initiative follows a request by the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers to the minister for its 30,000 members to join the Civil Servants Housing Scheme Fund.

“The government is putting up about 700 housing units in Nairobi’s Ngara area and many other towns, but unlike civil servants, our members cannot access affordable mortgages to buy them,” Kuppet secretary-general Njeru Kanyamba said.

Mr Shitanda recently announced that the government planned to build 50,000 houses for Kenyans annually for the next three years.

He said that in an effort to meet or surpass a national annual demand of at least 150,000 units, private developers will be offered incentives to build affordable houses.

Despite the existence of the Civil Servants Housing Scheme Fund, low salaries and outstanding loans have frustrated many civil servants’ dreams of buying homes.

Mortgage providers managing the scheme say most civil servants’ payslips are laden with loan deductions, leaving them with little leeway to meet the additional burden of paying for a house.

To buy a Sh5 million house, a civil servant would be required to pay a monthly mortgage of Sh35,000.

He or she will also be required to pay 10 per cent of the value of the house and insurance and other transaction fees.