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Mukuru residents move into Ruto’s houses
Workers carry building materials at the new Mukuru Housing Estate Phase 1, Nairobi, on May 27, 2025.
The beneficiaries of the affordable housing project in the Mukuru slums have started moving into the bedsitters which were handed over by President William Ruto last week.
According to the Ministry of Lands and Planning, the people who were lucky to secure 1,080 studio houses are supposed to start occupying their houses.
On Tuesday, the beneficiaries of slums upgrading lined up to start the verification process by checking their details against the agreement with the lawyer before being allowed to move in.
Affordable housing program officer, Tracy Chemutai(right), inspects a bedsitter unit belonging to Newton Kinyua (left), a beneficiary at Mukuru Housing Estate Phase 1, Nairobi, on May 27, 2025.
First phase of occupancy begins
Among the beneficiaries is Newton Kinyua, a youth who has been raised in Marigoini slums in the South B area.
Mr Kinyua is a happy man who is ready to start his family after getting a decent house.
“This place is good. I can now start a family. I couldn’t bring my girlfriend to the ghetto because of the living conditions. At least I can now bring her here and start a family,” Mr Kinyua said.
“We received the message from the affordable housing board asking us to come on Tuesday, saying that our houses were ready at New Mukuru Estate and that we should come and confirm,” Mr Kinyua said.
For him, it is a dream come through to step into a modern house with a hot shower inside and a toilet.
“The hygiene is very high here. We have seen that people have been contracted to clean the place and I can easily access water in my house. I will no longer have to pay Sh20 to use a toilet the way I have been doing in the ghetto,” Mr Kinyua said.
For him, paying a rent of Sh3,900 every month is almost the same as what he used to pay in the slums but he will not have to worry again about fire and cases of theft.
Lilian Simiyu (right), a mother of three, wipes a table as her neighbors are helping her, Daniel Njeru(left) and Benson Maingi (center), at a bedsitter unit in the new Mukuru Housing Estate Phase 1, Nairobi, on May 27, 2025.
New cooking technology
Naomi Waithera Kamau is already hawking fruits in Mukuru estate, something that she said has been her source of income in Nairobi for many years.
She is also a beneficiary and is ready to settle in the houses which have been prioritise by the Kenya Kwanza administration to change the standard of the living in slums.
“I sell fruits and I have a house here. It is a good thing for me and it means that I will not struggle with mud and floods again,” she said.
View of the new Mukuru Housing Estate Phase 1, Nairobi, pictured on May 27, 2025. The program is part of the Government's effort to improve housing affordability and reduce socioeconomic disparities.
The houses have been fitted with modern and efficient cooking technology which will allow them to pay as little as they could afford.
This means that they will not be allowed to move in with their cooking gas or charcoal stoves, something that Mary Muteithia Gaku is not happy about.
“This means that if I run out of gas in the middle of the night while cooking, and say that I don’t have money in my phone, I will sleep without food. They should give us an option of having a gas container in our houses,” Ms Gaku says.
School access is a new hurdle
She has also challenged the board to expect a confrontation with some of the residents, saying that some of them were not paying rent in the slums and that majority had agreements with landlords on how to make payments in instalments.
Lillian Simiyu is also busy arranging her house before going to pick up her children from Mukuru kwa Njenga to come and settle in the new environment. Her challenge is access to schools where her children are currently studying.
“I have signed an agreement and I will be a homeowner in Nairobi and I feel great. I am a community health promoter in Mukuru and with the monthly stipend that we get, I could not have thought that I would get a home here,” Ms Simiyu says.
Affordable Housing Board Acting CEO Sheila Waweru speaks during an interview at the new Mukuru Housing Estate Phase 1, Nairobi, on May 27, 2025.
Mukuru kwa Njenga slum manager Benson Maingi accompanied some of the beneficiaries whom he used to lead and is a happy man to see the houses that are being occupied.
“Life is not that good in the slums. Am here to confirm that these people are the ones that we lived with in the slums. It is a real project,” Mr Maingi said.
Affordable Housing Board Chief Executive Officer Sheila Waweru says that the process is going on smoothly and that those who were not captured in the process of allocating the houses will be considered in the next projects.
