Housing Levy Constitutional and Non-discriminatory - High Court

Nairobi, 

Tuesday, 22 October, 2024 

McCreadie Andias, 

The High Court has on Tuesday afternoon, Upheld the implementation of the Housing Levy following 6 petitions filed against it's legality. 

In a ruling delivered by a three - judge bench, Justices; Olga Sewe, John Chigiti and Josephine Mongare found that adequate public participation was conducted and due process was followed when establishing the fund and before its enactment.

They further ruled the housing levy under the Affordable Housing Act valid, non-discriminatory, and constitutional. 

In her ruling, Justice Mong'are stated that the petitioners' argument claiming the levy imposed on Kenyans was discriminatory was unsubstantiated. She noted that the petitioners did not provide a clear structure for how collections from the informal sector were conducted, which hindered their ability to effectively challenge the case.

''The petitioners argue that the collection of the levy is discriminatory, while the act is clear regarding the formal sector, stating that the formal sector is to be taxed on their gross salary, he did not provide for a structure on how collections from informal sector was to be made,'' Mong'are observed.

The judges observed thar their ruling solely focused on key issues that were raised by the petitioners in regards to the Affordable Housing Act.

The key issues for determination included; whether there was adequate public participation on the matter, whether Articles 27,40 and 43 of the Constitution were infringed, on whether the Act clawed on devolution.

The court was also supposed to make a determination on whether the government illegally used public land to construct the houses without involving the National Lands Commission (NLC).

This comes after Chief Justice Martha Koome on March 19 appointed a three-Judge bench to hear and determine a string of cases challenging the implementation of the new Affordable Housing Act.

The ruling, will now see it that the government will continue its implementation of the levy by deducting a 1.5% cut on the gross salary of Kenyans to support the levy. 

Employers will also contribute a 1.5 percent deduction from their employees' salaries, bringing the total contribution to the government to 3 percent.