The controversy that has dogged the housing tax since its unpopular inception is not ending anytime soon. It has now emerged that for every Sh100 that a Kenyan pays in housing tax, Sh30 goes to the pockets of contractors who have been recruited by the government of President William Ruto to build the so-called affordable houses.
This has been revealed by a report from Grant Thornton on the Affordable Housing Project. The report dated March 19, 2025 was conducted by the audit firm under a contract issued by the Affordable Housing Board.
It shows that contractors will pocket up to 30 percent in profits from the project, translating to some Sh85.6 billion profits. These profits will come from 215 AHP projects that have been valued at a cost of Sh285.5 billion. These projects are expected to see the construction of some 198,947 houses across Kenya.
“The impact assessment exercise was carried out over two months across 215 AHP projects with 198,947 housing units in nine classified regions including Eastern, Coast, Central, North Eastern, South Rift, North Rift, Western, Nyanza, Western Rift, and Metropolitan,” the audit firm stated.
The report further stated that construction cost and the cost of materials took the bulk of financing at Sh157 billion.
The report further stated that under the construction projects going on under the AHP, at least 18.7 million bags of cement each with 50 kilograms, 1.19 million tonnes of sand, 2.99 million tonnes of ballast, 350.9 million kilos of steel, 171.37 million pieces of stones, and 27.1 million litres of paint have been used in the construction of some 160,000 houses. The construction is reportedly to be ongoing.
Close allies of President Ruto are raking in billions of money from the controversial affordable housing tax that Kenyans are forcefully deducted every month. According to a report that appeared in the Sunday Nation on February 21, 2026, Ruto allies have been awarded contracts worth billions of money to build houses under the affordable housing scheme.
Among these Ruto allies is Mary Wambui who is the chairperson of the Athi Water Works Development Agency. The report in the Sunday Nation stated that a firm that is associated with Wambui known as Nightingale (E.A) Limited had been awarded a tender worth Sh4.78 billion to construct 2,956 houses in the Mathare area in Nairobi.
This company’s details at the Registrar of Companies showed that Edward Njenga Muniu holds a 90 percent stake while Wambui’s business associate Ruth Waithira Kinyanjui hold a 10 percent stake.
The Sunday Nation had further reported that Wambui was previously a director of Nightingale. She resigned from her position on December 5, 2022 after she was appointed by President Ruto to the position of Chairperson of the Communications Authority of Kenya.
The report went on to single out Sam Mburu who is the husband of Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika and a Ruto ally. Mburu had been granted a deal worth about Sh2.58 billion to build 1,215 housing units in Naivasha. He had been granted this deal through his company which is known as Landmark Freight Services.
Another Ruto ally who bagged these deals is Trukish national Harun Aydin through a company known as MHOA Africa Limited. Apparently, this Turkish man is part of a joint venture that is expected to build at least 100,000 homes under the controversial affordable houses project.
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His company was registered in March 2023, just a few months after Ruto was declared the winner of the 2022 presidential contest by the Supreme Court of Kenya. Aydin had been deported from Kenya in 2021. MHOA Africa is in a joint venture with Demir Group. Aydin holds a 50 per cent stake. Aydin had been deported from Kenya over money-laundering links and illegal movement into and out of Kenya.
