Prominent economist Kwame Owino has criticized the proposed National Housing Levy saying its a bad idea that Kenyans shouldn’t accept. “Kenyans…anybody who has the chance to listen to me, I am not an elected member of parliament, am not seeking election and I don’t work for the government. Let me tell you, this is a bad idea,” said Kwame.
Kwame who is the CEO of Institute for Economic Affairs said during a live debate hosted by Royal Media Services that the levy proposed in the Finance Bill, 2023 will not create the thousands oj jobs promised by the Kenya Kwanza administration.
“The jobs you are promising will not come. There are 14 million households in Kenya, if 14 million households have not created jobs, why do these guys think that creating 250,000 in one year will create those jobs? You are lying to us.” Kwame told Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga and added that the spirited push by the government to have the housing levy program in place is aimed at fulfilling commitments made to contractors and other beneficiaries of the controversial Housing program.
Kwame told PS Hinga that the problem he was trying to solve is not a housing problem, it is an income problem to begin with. “The problem is not a housing problem. The problem is that people do not have enough income to be able to pay for houses. If you put all this money together over time, this is a fund that will collapse in 7 years.
