Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris says her political legacy will be judged largely by her contribution to improving housing, particularly for families living in the city’s informal settlements.
Passaris said her years working with communities in Nairobi’s low-income areas shaped her decision to make housing a major focus of her work in Parliament. She said better homes and safer living conditions require both clear laws and a steady source of money to support housing programmes.
“For me, I said my legacy is housing, and the reason I say that is because I was in the housing committee. I’m still in the housing committee. We’ve passed legislation to make sure that we can have a housing levy,” she said.
Speaking on Radio Generation on Monday night, Passaris said her involvement in the housing committee had given her an opportunity to push for measures aimed at creating a financing system for affordable homes.
She said her experiences in informal settlements had also influenced her position, having witnessed the difficult conditions faced by residents, including insecurity and risks affecting women and children.
Passaris has previously been involved in efforts to improve safety in informal settlements through her Adopt-A-Light initiative, which focused on providing street lighting in areas where poor lighting had contributed to insecurity.
Her push for a dedicated housing fund has also been linked to the wider debate over affordable housing in the country. The issue gained renewed political attention under President William Ruto, whose administration made affordable housing one of its key development priorities.
However, government efforts to address the housing shortage predate the current administration, with the National Housing Policy dating back to Sessional Paper No. 3 of 2016.
The debate took a new turn in 2023 when the government introduced the Affordable Housing Levy through the Finance Act 2023. The arrangement required employees to contribute 1.5 percent of their gross salaries, with employers expected to make an equal contribution.
The levy was challenged in court, with the High Court ruling in November 2023 that it did not have a sufficient legal basis.
Parliament later moved to provide the required legal framework through the Affordable Housing Bill, 2023. The National Assembly approved the Bill on February 22, 2024, after amendments were made following public participation.
The legislation created the Affordable Housing Fund and maintained the 1.5 percent levy on gross salaries as well as certain other forms of income.
The Senate later passed the Bill before it was signed into law on March 19, 2024, becoming the Affordable Housing Act, 2024.
Provisions requiring payment of the levy and the remittance of contributions by employers took effect immediately, while other sections of the law came into operation from March 21, 2024.
Passaris said her backing of the housing financing plan had not been without political consequences. She acknowledged that her position on the Finance Bill 2023 affected her popularity among some voters.
Despite the political cost, she said she stood by the decision because housing projects require reliable funding if they are to be carried out on a large scale.
“I knew I wanted better housing, and I knew we needed money for the housing. You can’t build houses without money. We needed a dedicated fund for it,” she said.
Under the Affordable Housing Act, the levy is set at 1.5 percent of an employee’s gross salary, while the employer contributes an equal amount. The law also extends the levy to qualifying gross income earned outside formal employment.
Passaris said her housing plans are not limited to building homes. She said the agenda also includes markets and institutional housing, with police accommodation among the areas she wants addressed.
She further raised concerns about the limited resources available to her office as Nairobi Woman Representative. Passaris noted that her mandate covers all 17 constituencies in Nairobi, yet the resources available to her office are not enough to support major projects across the entire county.
The funding limits, she said, make it difficult to roll out large interventions despite the wide area and population covered by her office.
Even with those limitations, Passaris maintained that housing remains the main issue she wants to be remembered for, pointing to her continued participation in Parliament’s housing work and her efforts to improve living conditions for Nairobi residents.