By Benadeta Mwaura - Reporter
Kenya, 28 August 2026 - Mukuru residents who say they registered, saved and paid towards homes under the Government's Affordable Housing Programme have taken to the streets, raising fresh questions over who is ultimately benefiting from the housing project built on land where their previous homes once stood.
Residents gathered on Thursday to protest what they described as delays, conflicting information and irregularities in the allocation of units at the New Mukuru Affordable Housing Estate.
Some told journalists that they had completed the registration and application process through Boma Yangu, paid deposits and received confirmation of their applications, only to later discover that units they expected to occupy were no longer available.
The Standard reported that some residents said they had paid deposits of up to five per cent of the house price before receiving messages indicating that the units were “sold out.”
For some families, the dispute is particularly painful because they were displaced from the informal settlement to make way for the very project they expected would eventually provide them with better and more secure housing.
Some residents have also claimed they borrowed money to raise deposits running into tens of thousands of shillings, only to remain without homes.
The claims circulating on social media have placed a figure of about KSh80,000 on some of the deposits. That specific figure should, however, be attributed to residents rather than presented as an established government requirement until the affected applicants' payment records or official documentation are independently verified.
The controversy is not entirely new.
When the first 1,080 units at Mukuru were prepared for occupation in 2025, the allocation process was already attracting questions from some residents who alleged that people who were not original Mukuru residents were being allocated houses. The Affordable Housing Board rejected those claims and maintained that beneficiaries went through enumeration, registration, verification and final allocation.
The larger New Mukuru Estate is designed to provide 13,248 homes, making it one of the Government's most significant housing developments under the Affordable Housing Programme. The first phase of 1,080 units was commissioned in May 2025.
The Government's stated model is not simply to construct apartment blocks, but to create integrated neighbourhoods.
The Mukuru development includes social housing for lower-income households alongside affordable housing for households earning more, with the Affordable Housing Board previously describing the estate as a mixed development. The project has also included amenities such as an ECDE and daycare centre, a strip mall for small businesses and a health facility.
That makes the allocation dispute particularly important.
The question is no longer simply whether Kenya is building affordable houses. It is whether the allocation system is transparent enough to ensure that eligible applicants—and particularly communities displaced to facilitate the developments—can actually access them.
There is another unresolved issue that has previously angered Mukuru residents: relocation assistance.
In December 2025, residents of the New Mukuru Estate protested over delays in receiving a KSh30,000 relocation facilitation payment agreed for each household. Residents said they had been waiting for the money six months after resettlement.
That history gives the latest protest a wider context.
For residents, the housing programme is not simply a question of buying an apartment. For some, it represents a transition from informal housing to formal home ownership after years of living in conditions marked by insecurity, overcrowding and inadequate services.
The Government has also presented the programme as evidence that home ownership can become accessible to ordinary Kenyans.
In one official account, a teacher who moved into New Mukuru said she had previously paid about KSh12,000 in monthly rent but was now paying about KSh3,900 towards ownership of her home. She described herself as an ordinary Kenyan who had successfully applied through the programme.
That contrast makes the latest complaints more significant.
For one group of residents, the Affordable Housing Programme has become a pathway from a shack to home ownership. For another, the same programme is becoming a source of debt, uncertainty and frustration.
The difference may ultimately come down to one question: who gets the keys?
And that is where the Government now faces pressure to provide clear answers.
Residents want to know how units were allocated, what happened to applicants who had already made payments, whether displaced households were given priority as promised, and why some applicants are receiving messages that units they believed they had secured are no longer available.
They also want clarity on the status of relocation payments and whether applicants who paid deposits but failed to receive units will have their money refunded or transferred to alternative units.
The Boma Yangu platform itself is intended to facilitate affordable housing applications, but its official guidance makes an important distinction: registration or payment of the booking fee does not itself guarantee allocation of a house.
That distinction will be crucial in resolving the current dispute.
At the same time, it does not answer the specific complaints being raised by residents who say they went beyond registration, paid substantial deposits and received confirmation of particular units.
Those claims require documentation and an official response.
The Affordable Housing Programme has been one of President William Ruto's flagship projects, with the Government arguing that it will address Kenya's housing deficit while creating jobs, markets and better urban neighbourhoods.
Mukuru was supposed to demonstrate that vision in practice.
But as residents who once lived on the land now occupied by the new apartments return to the streets demanding answers, the test of the programme is becoming increasingly simple:
Can the Government demonstrate that the people who were promised affordable homes can actually get them—and that the journey from Boma Yangu registration to receiving the keys is transparent, fair and verifiable?
Because for the families protesting in Mukuru, this is no longer about an abstract housing policy.
It is about a home they say they were promised.
Mukuru Housing Protest Puts Affordable Housing Allocation Under Fresh Scrutiny
Mukuru residents who say they registered, saved and paid towards homes under the Government's Affordable Housing Programme have taken to the streets, raising fresh questions over who is ultimately benefiting from the housing project built on land where their previous homes once stood.
More from Kenya
Residents gathered on Thursday to protest what they described as delays, conflicting information and irregularities in the allocation of units at the New Mukuru Affordable Housing Estate.
Some told journalists that they had completed the registration and application process through Boma Yangu, paid deposits and received confirmation of their applications, only to later discover that units they expected to occupy were no longer available.
The Standard reported that some residents said they had paid deposits of up to five per cent of the house price before receiving messages indicating that the units were “sold out.”
For some families, the dispute is particularly painful because they were displaced from the informal settlement to make way for the very project they expected would eventually provide them with better and more secure housing.
Some residents have also claimed they borrowed money to raise deposits running into tens of thousands of shillings, only to remain without homes.
The claims circulating on social media have placed a figure of about KSh80,000 on some of the deposits. That specific figure should, however, be attributed to residents rather than presented as an established government requirement until the affected applicants' payment records or official documentation are independently verified.
The controversy is not entirely new.
When the first 1,080 units at Mukuru were prepared for occupation in 2025, the allocation process was already attracting questions from some residents who alleged that people who were not original Mukuru residents were being allocated houses. The Affordable Housing Board rejected those claims and maintained that beneficiaries went through enumeration, registration, verification and final allocation.
The larger New Mukuru Estate is designed to provide 13,248 homes, making it one of the Government's most significant housing developments under the Affordable Housing Programme. The first phase of 1,080 units was commissioned in May 2025.
The Government's stated model is not simply to construct apartment blocks, but to create integrated neighbourhoods.
The Mukuru development includes social housing for lower-income households alongside affordable housing for households earning more, with the Affordable Housing Board previously describing the estate as a mixed development. The project has also included amenities such as an ECDE and daycare centre, a strip mall for small businesses and a health facility.
That makes the allocation dispute particularly important.
The question is no longer simply whether Kenya is building affordable houses. It is whether the allocation system is transparent enough to ensure that eligible applicants—and particularly communities displaced to facilitate the developments—can actually access them.
There is another unresolved issue that has previously angered Mukuru residents: relocation assistance.
In December 2025, residents of the New Mukuru Estate protested over delays in receiving a KSh30,000 relocation facilitation payment agreed for each household. Residents said they had been waiting for the money six months after resettlement.
That history gives the latest protest a wider context.
For residents, the housing programme is not simply a question of buying an apartment. For some, it represents a transition from informal housing to formal home ownership after years of living in conditions marked by insecurity, overcrowding and inadequate services.
The Government has also presented the programme as evidence that home ownership can become accessible to ordinary Kenyans.
In one official account, a teacher who moved into New Mukuru said she had previously paid about KSh12,000 in monthly rent but was now paying about KSh3,900 towards ownership of her home. She described herself as an ordinary Kenyan who had successfully applied through the programme.
That contrast makes the latest complaints more significant.
For one group of residents, the Affordable Housing Programme has become a pathway from a shack to home ownership. For another, the same programme is becoming a source of debt, uncertainty and frustration.
The difference may ultimately come down to one question: who gets the keys?
And that is where the Government now faces pressure to provide clear answers.
Residents want to know how units were allocated, what happened to applicants who had already made payments, whether displaced households were given priority as promised, and why some applicants are receiving messages that units they believed they had secured are no longer available.
They also want clarity on the status of relocation payments and whether applicants who paid deposits but failed to receive units will have their money refunded or transferred to alternative units.
The Boma Yangu platform itself is intended to facilitate affordable housing applications, but its official guidance makes an important distinction: registration or payment of the booking fee does not itself guarantee allocation of a house.
That distinction will be crucial in resolving the current dispute.
At the same time, it does not answer the specific complaints being raised by residents who say they went beyond registration, paid substantial deposits and received confirmation of particular units.
Those claims require documentation and an official response.
The Affordable Housing Programme has been one of President William Ruto's flagship projects, with the Government arguing that it will address Kenya's housing deficit while creating jobs, markets and better urban neighbourhoods.
Mukuru was supposed to demonstrate that vision in practice.
But as residents who once lived on the land now occupied by the new apartments return to the streets demanding answers, the test of the programme is becoming increasingly simple:
Can the Government demonstrate that the people who were promised affordable homes can actually get them—and that the journey from Boma Yangu registration to receiving the keys is transparent, fair and verifiable?
Because for the families protesting in Mukuru, this is no longer about an abstract housing policy.
It is about a home they say they were promised.