President William Ruto has warned that Kenya could lose more agricultural land to settlement if the country fails to provide adequate housing in urban areas, saying his Affordable Housing Programme will help ease the pressure on farmland.
Ruto said many Kenyans seeking places to live have resorted to dividing agricultural land into smaller portions, a trend he said could leave the country with less land available for food production.
Speaking during a media engagement in Kisumu on Monday, September 14, 2026, the President said the housing programme should therefore be viewed not only as a plan to provide homes but also as part of efforts to protect land used for farming.
“The Affordable Housing project allows us to get our land organised. Many people who would otherwise be living in towns have gone to subdivide agricultural land into small pieces,” Ruto said.
“So we run the risk of reducing the land we have today for food security; we reduce it to be used for housing. So Affordable Housing helps us to stop land fragmentation that creates a risk to our food security.”
Housing and the pressure on farmland
Ruto said Kenya has to deal with the growing need for housing without allowing more productive agricultural areas to be turned into residential settlements.
He argued that when people do not have access to suitable homes in towns, some turn to family or agricultural land and divide it into smaller plots for construction.
The President said this practice could gradually reduce the amount of land available to produce food, creating a challenge for the country’s food security.
His argument places the Affordable Housing Programme within a wider effort to manage the country’s growing urban population while protecting agricultural land.
Ruto said providing planned housing in towns can help accommodate more people without creating the same pressure on farmland that comes with continued subdivision.
Ruto made similar case in Nandi
The President has previously made the connection between affordable housing and the protection of agricultural land.
In January 2024, while launching the Emgwen Affordable Housing Project in Nandi County, Ruto called on Kenyans to consider living in affordable housing instead of repeatedly dividing agricultural land for settlement.
“We want you to stop dividing land and live in Affordable Housing programme houses so that we can use the land you would have settled in to produce food and eradicate hunger,” he said.
Ruto has since continued to present the housing programme as a solution to several problems facing the country.
Apart from providing homes, he has said the programme can support employment, increase activity in the construction sector and create demand for locally produced materials.
During the Kisumu engagement, he again presented organised housing as a way of dealing with settlement needs while ensuring that land capable of producing food remains available for farming.
Affordable housing expansion
The Affordable Housing Programme is among the major projects launched by the Ruto administration since it came to power in 2022.
The government has set a target of building one million affordable housing units across the country, with projects spread across several counties.
Developments have been undertaken in areas including Nairobi, Kisumu, Machakos and Lamu as the government expands the programme.
In Kisumu, one of the major projects is the LAPFUND Makasembo Affordable Housing Project, which has delivered hundreds of housing units as part of the wider housing plan.
Ruto made the remarks while continuing his development tour of Kisumu County, during which he has been commissioning infrastructure projects and explaining his administration’s approach to key national programmes.
His latest defence of affordable housing adds food security to the list of reasons he has given for the programme, with the President warning that continued subdivision of farmland for homes could reduce land available for food production.