President Kenyatta’s Big 4 Agenda at Stake After Courts Suspend Formation of Housing Fund Advisory Board

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four Agenda has been curtailed after the courts suspended the formation of an advisory board that would manage the National Housing Development Fund.

The future of 500,000 affordable housing units under the NHDF initiative lay at stake after the courts granted Federation of Kenya Employers pleas to rescind the decision of the cabinet secretary in charge of Transport, Infrastructure, Public Works, Housing and Urban Planning James Macharia’s to nominate members to its advisory board.

“That in the interim an injunction order be and is hereby issued restraining the minister for Transport and National Housing Corporation, their agents, servants, representatives or any person claiming to act through them from proceeding with any actions and process aimed at appointing members of an advisory board and-or-establishing an advisory board,” directed Justice Nelson Abuodha.

CS Macharia had sought to nominate members to the yet-to-be established advisory board from: Kenya National Union of Teachers, FKE, COTU, the Kenya Private Sector Alliance and Union of Kenya Civil Servants.

The decision by the Employment and Labor Relations Court to suspend establishment of the board will further delay the implementation of the housing project.

The project was scheduled to roll out last year in June, but it has been delayed due to its complex planning and logistics arrangements.

In December 2018, the same court temporarily halted implementation of 1.5 per cent house levy on salaried workers on grounds that it was unconstitutional and amounted to double taxation.

Other specific projects and targets that underpin the key pillars in the Big Four Agenda include manufacturing, universal healthcare and food security.