A Nakuru doctor has gone to the High Court asking it to order a temporary suspension of the commencement, charging and implementation of the Affordable Housing Act 2023.
In a petition filed on Tuesday, Magare Gikenyi claimed that there is no justification as provided by the Act to restrict the rights of individuals. He said the law has failed to understand that some Kenyans have “arranged and settled”. This includes the location of the building, style, design and method of payment among others, adding that there is no need to force all Kenyans to pay taxes for the benefit of other people. He went on to say that the Affordable Housing Act is trying to introduce “communist ideology”, which the constitution does not allow the government to introduce.
Gikenyi went on to explain that it is unconstitutional that the Act intends to use public land in accordance with the Land Act, 2012 and sell houses to individuals or organizations. In support of his claim, he cited Article 62(2) and (3) of the Constitution, that all public land is held and managed and/or allocated by the National Land Commission (NLC) and not any other body.
“The law does not provide NLC on land allocation and land acquisition processing process,” he added. He emphasized that the procedure for the sale of public land, whether it has a house or without a house in it, is governed by constitutional provisions and therefore the Act of Parliament cannot be said to remove the mentioned provisions.
