The Persons with Disabilities Act, 2025, mandate that State-owned entities must reserve at least five percent of all new residential and commercial buildings for Persons with Disabilities.
Persons with disabilities will enjoy interest-free loans and longer repayment periods for houses and commercial premises that they will purchase from State-owned entities in the latest socio-economic inclusion initiative.
This is part of the legal changes that took effect from May this year and which demand that government agencies reserve at least five percent of the entire residential and commercial buildings they are building for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
The requirements, contained in The Persons with Disabilities Act, 2025, are meant to ease the hurdles that PWDs face in their income-generating activities and also quest to live in decent spaces, just like other Kenyans.
But the directive to allocate five percent of the space for PWDs could come at a cost to the government entities, who are eyeing residential and commercial buildings to diversify and grow revenues. This is in case when PWDs fail to take up the reserved space.
“Every Government agency putting up residential and commercial buildings shall reserve at least five percent of the said residential and commercial buildings for acquisition by persons with disabilities and the terms and conditions of such acquisition to persons with disabilities shall include interest free and longer periods of repayment,” the Act reads in part.
The Act, which came into force on May 27, 2025, does not, however, define ‘longer periods of repayment’ in what could trigger tussles between PWD tenants and owners of the premises.
Residential and commercial buildings have in recent years turned into a revenue mainstay for State-owned entities, keen to boost earnings while lowering the risk entailed in concentrating investment.
Longer repayment periods for the loans and waiver of interest are seen as a major boost to PWDs, given that they have to incur additional costs to lower challenges in their daily lives. These hurdles include the acquisition of wheelchairs or retrofitting personal cars to boost comfort.
Additionally, much of the existing infrastructure (such as buildings and roads) has not been considered their special needs, leaving them at a point of disadvantage compared to normal persons.
“Persons with disabilities in Kenya have long faced systemic barriers to inclusion, rooted in cultural stigmas, fragmented service structures, and limited socioeconomic opportunities,” the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says in its Disability Inclusion Status Report 2025 for Kenya.
The UNDP report further shows that Kenya loses up to 6.95 percent (Sh1.1 trillion) of its Gross Domestic Product due to the exclusion of PWDs. The exclusion is based on a combination of factors, including lower productivity, higher unemployment and higher labour market inactivity.
The interest-free loans, which have a longer repayment period, mark the latest effort by the government to improve the social and economic fortunes of PWDs.
Other measures include the legal requirement that all public entities reserve 30 percent of all tenders to businesses owned by PWDs, women and the youth.
