Ruto Responds After Court Declares Housing Levy Null & Void

President William Ruto has indicated that his government was willing to make readjustments to its policies, hours after the High Court declared sections of the Finance Act unconstitutional, including the Housing Levy.

Speaking during the 5th Congress of the International Trade Union Confederation- Africa held in Nairobi, Ruto indicated that he would respect the three-judge bench's ruling but underscored the importance of the affordable housing program, especially on job creation.

"I know the court has said that we should go and re-adjust the law to align it appropriately…we are going to do that the 120,000 people can become 200,000 people and 500,000 in the next five years because if we don’t engage these people in productive work, they will become a very big challenge to all of us," he said.

President William Ruto interacting with a construction worker at the Kibra Affordable Housing project on November 22, 2023. /PCS

"The young people out there unless we create real opportunities, and you know we used to talk about how we are going to grow the economy and it is going to create jobs. It's now beyond that...we have to be deliberate and intentional."

While addressing the delegation, President Ruto however denied claims that the housing project was aimed at benefiting the government more than Kenyans themselves.

“I took a long time to explain what we are going to do to create job opportunities so that we can have more workers, people and decent wages,” he said.

“There are three things I said I would do in my tenure; robust housing programme- not because we are looking for houses but because housing creates millions of jobs. I want to report that in the last eight months, we have created 120,000 jobs from our housing plan.”

He also reassured that the project would continue to create more vacancies in the job markets, predicting that by 2027, the plan would have created more than 500,000 jobs.

He revisited his recent remarks about Kenya being in talks with Germany to create more employment opportunities in the European country, adding that his regime was working with speed to tailor technology for the purposes of creating more jobs in the digital space.

“Kenya is a country of workers, as I told you, I have kept my commitment and we now have 120,000 workers. My plan is that by 2027 we will have half a million people working,” he noted.

“We are working to increase the number of people working either locally, foreign or remotely, the whole concept is to increase more workers. We are also going to create more jobs around the digital space and technology space. As we are talking now, the Parliament is passing the NG-CDF bill so that we create ICT hubs in every ward in Kenya.”

The Housing Levy was one of the sections declared null and void in the Finance Act by the High Court on Tuesday.

The judges had revealed that the Finance Act 2023 amendment to Section 84 of the Finance Act amending the Employment Act introducing the Housing Levy was unconstitutional, adding that the levy had lacked a comprehensive legal framework and was irrational.

The levy was accused of violating the principles of taxation and as contained in the Finance Act 2023 is discriminatory and unfair for making a distinction between the formal and informal sectors thus creating unequal and inequitable principles.

However, the government fought back and sought a 45-day conservatory order regarding the Housing Levy, which the government granted, continuing the 1.5 per cent deductions until January 10, 2024.