On-site assessment reveals steady progress in Kisumu’s Affordable Housing construction

JOSEPH OUMA -KNA 

The Government has spent Sh5.7 billion on the ongoing construction of affordable houses in Kisumu County. Through the Affordable Housing Development Programme, it is building 1,880 units in Lumumba Estate, Kisumu. 

A team from the Prime Cabinet Secretary’s office, led by Principal Administrative Secretary Juliana Yiapan, visited the area to assess the status of 51 national government-funded projects in Western Kenya, most of which were launched by the Head of State. 

The team, accompanied by Nyanza Regional Commissioner Flora Mworoa, was informed by contractor Jared Buoga that the project commenced later than anticipated and is set for completion by January 2026. So far, excavation for the foundations of 11 blocks has been completed, with four other blocks—A3, A4, A5, and C—in progress. 

Backfilling of blocks B1 and B7 is underway, while casting of foundation columns for block B2, as well as casting of raft and other steel reinforcements, is ongoing. 

In an exclusive interview with KNA at the site, Yiapan stated that her team was on a mission to determine whether the 51 projects were being implemented after it emerged that some projects could not be easily located and may have stalled. 

Resident Eng. Clement Onyango reported that the government has so far paid Sh575.2 million as of July 2024 and that the construction works are progressing well. 

He informed the team that an additional Sh215.6 million is being processed to ensure the project does not stall for any reason. Yiapan and her team had earlier paid a courtesy call to the Nyanza Regional Commissioner before proceeding to Siaya County for a similar exercise. 

They later traveled back to Kisumu International Airport, visited the cotton-growing project in Chiga, Kisumu East, and finally arrived at the Kisumu National Polytechnic Textile Industry, which is projected to cost up to Sh3.9 billion upon completion. 

At Chiga, Kisumu County Government officials confirmed having received one metric ton of BT- cotton, and traditional cotton seeds being piloted by selected farmers to ascertain their reliability before upscaling to all farmers in the county. 

The team was informed that most of the cotton seeds were destroyed by flooding and that was followed by drought. This meant that most farmers had to plant twice or thrice, culminating in huge losses.

The farmers have subsequently appealed to the government to avail more cotton seeds. 

Stakeholders in the agriculture sector identified Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) and Kenya Prisons (Kodiaga and Kibos) as having large tracts of land required for effective multiplication of BT- cotton and the traditional cotton seeds for further distribution to farmers in the region. 

At Kisumu Polytechnic the team was told that the government through World Bank funding has built a modern textile industry complete with state-of-the-art machinery and laboratories for mass production as well as training students drawn from East, Southern and Central Africa. 

So far, the government has disbursed Sh394 million already spent on the project and is only awaiting delivery of a few other machines to start running after being commissioned in the next few months, according to the director in charge of the project, Thomas Nyang’oro. 

Nyangóro said the five-year project has lagged due to unpredictable climate changes among other challenges, adding that it would facilitate the region’s staff skills upgrading on TVET programmes. 

He said Tanzania and Ethiopia are among the countries set to improve their workforce as their students will use the state-of-the-art textile machines, studios, textile libraries as the multi-billion project stands out among other national government flagship projects scattered across the country. 

"We boast of Sh230-million worth of equipment, computer machines for weaving and processing some of which have been delivered while others are still on the way,” he told the team. 

The textile project has the capacity to host 600 students per session for those going for hands-on practicals from the polytechnic and other institutions in the region.