Just a day after President William Ruto stated that Kenya is slowly inching closer to becoming the Singapore of Africa, courtesy of his Affordable Housing Program, Lawyer Willis Otieno has boldly come out to pour cold water on the same.
Through his official X handle on Friday, October 31, 2025, Willis, who responded to a comment by Housing PS Charles Hinga on how Affordable Housing is a game-changer, flatly rejected the idea.
He used the analogy of buying a cow, then getting charged to benefit from the milk and other products.
This is after Hinga, in his interview with the media, claimed that Kenyans under the AHP will be paying Ksh2500, which is the same amount they have been paying elsewhere.
“That’s like taxing me to buy a cow, then charging me again every time I drink the milk. The levy was sold to Kenyans as a contribution towards home ownership, not a down payment for state-built rental apartments.
“If the public funds the construction, the public shouldn’t be turned into tenants of their own money. What PS Hinga is describing isn’t affordability, but double taxation disguised as generosity,” Otieno wrote on X.
The good governance advocate went on to state that there is no way the government can claim that it is helping Kenyans by selling to them houses built on public lands, funded by taxpayers.
“You can’t call it a public housing programme when the public funds it, and then still has to pay rent to live in it,” Otieno added.
PS Charles Hinga pleads with Kenyans
In the media, PS Charles urged Kenyans to desist from being misled by leaders who are already enjoying mortgages, adding that the Affordable Housing Program is something many presidents have not been able to achieve in the past.
“Under the Affordable Housing Programme, we are asking people to pay Sh2,500, the same amount they would have paid as rent elsewhere, for a house that has all the basic services and more,” Charles Hinga told Kenyans.
All the same, it still remains to be seen how the entire issue of the Housing program will end up, with several Kenyans predicting a scenario of a crisis in regard to house ownership.
