Govt Tripples Rent for Over 50,000 Tenants

The government, through the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, has announced plans to increase rent in houses reserved for civil servants in various parts of the country. 

Housing PS Charles Hinga announced that he had written to the National Treasury seeking to adjust the rent paid by 56,982 civil servants who are housed by their employer - the state. 

This will be the first rental hike since 2001 with the most affected being senior civil servants housed in the upmarket residential areas of Nairobi including State House Road, Kileleshwa, among other areas. 

Hinga told Parliament that 3-bedroom units located in upmarket estates are currently charged at Ksh30,000 per month and will cost between Ksh90,000 and Ksh100,000. 

Civil servants living in low-market housing estates in Eastlands will not be spared in the review. Some of the rooms reserved for civil servants in Mbotela cost as low as Ksh1,000 per month. 

“Civil servants living in government houses pay an average of Ksh2,200. This includes those who pay lows of Ksh1,000 per month in areas such as Mbotela in Eastlands and those who pay as high as Ksh30,000 for 3-bedroom units in the upmarket areas,"

“There is a need to increase rent. I have written to the National Treasury to allow us to re-look at rental costs. We have not raised rent since the last review in 2001," he noted. 

The PS was appearing before the National Assembly to respond to a report from the Auditor General that showed the government was missing its revenue targets by failing to collect rent from the government-owned houses reserved for civil servants. 

The Auditor General found that the government was collecting about Ksh1.08 billion against a potential of Ksh1.5 billion - if all the houses were occupied. 

The rent owed by civil servants is deducted by their line ministries and respective county governments and is supposed to be remitted to the State Department for Housing. 

Hinga agreed that there was a failure to meet the rent collection targets, noting that the gap was a result of some of the houses being in poor conditions that rendered them unfit for habitation. He added that some ministries had failed to remit rent deductions made on employees’ salaries. 

The PS, however, noted that the ministry was rolling out several reforms which included rent review; introduction of an ERP system, as well as calling for Parliament to ask the non-compliant ministries to submit the rental deductions on time.