March Payslips to Feature Return of Housing Levy, Announces Ichung’wah
Kimani Ichung’wah, the Majority leader in the National Assembly, has assured President William Ruto that the Kenya Kwanza faction will leverage its numerical strength in the House to successfully pass the upcoming affordable housing bill.
Ruto’s cost-effective housing initiative faced legal setbacks when the courts declared the 1.5 percent housing levy designed to fund it as unlawful, not once but twice.
However, during the commencement of a Cabinet retreat in Naivasha on Monday, Ichung’wah conveyed assurance to the President that the Kenya Kwanza faction is committed to overcoming any obstacles to ensure the smooth passage of the new bill currently under consideration in the House.
“Your Excellency I’m happy to report we began debate last week on Thursday, we were not able to conclude and hopefully we should be able to conclude that tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon,” he said.
The recently proposed legislation includes revised sections that the courts deemed to violate the Constitution.
On November 28 of the previous year, a ruling by three High Court judges declared that the implementation of the housing levy, as brought about by the modification of the Employment Act through Section 84 of the Finance Act, 2023, is deficient in a thorough legal structure, thereby contravening Articles 10, 201, 206, and 210 of the Constitution.
Judges David Majanja, Christine Meoli, and Lawrence Mugambi have determined that the implementation of the housing levy is unjust, biased, and illogical. They argue that the exclusion of informal income earners from contributing to the national housing policy is unfair.
The judges also expressed that the law should have undergone public participation before being put into effect.
The government challenged the ruling, requesting orders to pause the decision and resume enforcing the 1.5 percent levy. However, on January 26, 2024, the appellate court rejected the application.
A panel of three judges determined that it would not be in the public’s best interest to approve the government’s request to maintain a statute deemed constitutionally illegal while awaiting an appeal hearing.
“This is because should the Court hearing the appeal affirm the constitutional invalidity of the impugned laws, then all actions that will have been undertaken under the impugned sections of the law during the intervening period will be legally frail,” Justices Lydia Achode, John Mativo, and Mwaniki Gachoka said.
Unwavering, President Ruto asserted that the affordable housing initiative would persist, urging the court to grant the government the necessary time to finalize the establishment of a new law for implementing the housing levy.
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“For the avoidance of doubt, I want to tell them that we were in the reprocess of creating a law to guide the process and they should have given us time,” Ruto, who spoke in Meru on Friday, January 26, said.
On Monday, Ichung’wah reassured the President that the implementation of a new law was progressing as planned, and the 1.5 percent housing levy would be reintroduced before the completion of March payrolls.
“We should be able to conclude that business tomorrow (Tuesday), hopefully on Wednesday afternoon we get into third reading…and be able to process the bill forward to the Senate so that they can advertise it by Friday, do the public participate and be able to get a new Affordable Housing Bill before the next payroll,” he said.
“Usually, many corporations both private and public process their payrolls after the 15th of the month, so we hope by the 15th of March, your Excellency, you will have assented to the new Affordable Housing Bill.”
The Majority leader urged Kenya Kwanza Members of Parliament participating in the Cabinet retreat not to neglect their responsibility of being present in the House to approve what he considered essential government matters.
He mentioned that the debate scheduled for last Thursday afternoon was abbreviated because the Majority side did not attend in sufficient numbers.
“Every time the Whip or any one of us is around trying to mobilize people to get back to the House they tell you ‘Niko pekee yangu tu, nakuja’ (I’m just alone, I’m coming) and we all forget that it is you as an individual who adds to the collective numbers,” he said.
“And when one person again stays away in the constituencies saying ‘it’s only myself’, another one is reasoning the same way and eventually we find ourselves that we don’t have the numbers. It’s unfortunate and I have to report here your Excellency, on Thursday afternoon the other side was more than us in the House.”
For a legislative proposal to be approved on the House floor, it needs to secure a two-thirds majority in the voting process.
March Payslips to Feature Return of Housing Levy, Announces Ichung’wah