MPs: Housing Levy's Sh63bn stream sits outside Controller of Budget oversight
Key points
- CIOC: Housing Levy falls outside CoB mandate because it is a "levy," not a budgeted fund.
- Scale cited: about Sh63bn a year; PS Charles Hinga earlier put monthly take at Sh5–6bn.
- MPs want PFM Act changes, stronger CoB enforcement tools, and a CoB–CBK integrated payment trail.
- Affordable Housing Act began 19 March 2024 (1.5% worker + employer match); CoB says delivery lags the 200,000-unit annual target.
Sh63 billion a year is the order of magnitude MPs put on Housing Levy collections that currently sit beyond ordinary Controller of Budget supervision — because the money is classified as a "levy" rather than a budgeted fund the Office Of The Controller Of Budget can independently police, Eastleigh Voice reported from a Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee file.
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang'o is cited as saying the legal design blocks independent supervision of the stream. Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga had earlier told the National Assembly's housing committee that monthly deductions run about Sh5 billion to Sh6 billion — a cashflow large enough that any blind spot is a national accountability story, not a footnote.
What legislators want rewritten
The committee is pushing amendments to the Public Finance Management Act so special funds and levies fall under CoB oversight. Parallel asks include enforcement powers for CoB recommendations, fewer limits on economic reporting, sanctions for non-compliance, and an integrated payment system linking the CoB office to the Central Bank of Kenya so approvals and expenditure can be tracked end to end.
The Affordable Housing Act, in force from 19 March 2024, funds the programme through a mandatory 1.5 per cent pre-tax deduction from employees with a matching employer contribution. That architecture built a large dedicated pipe — and, critics say, parked it partly outside classic budget-control rails.
Delivery lag versus collection pace
In her August 2025 national budget implementation review for 2024/25, Nyakang'o said the affordable housing programme remained largely behind schedule three years after launch, against a political commitment of at least 200,000 units a year. Collection velocity without matching published unit completion data is what keeps the levy under fire.
Business desk: Business. Workers funding the pipe deserve monthly dashboards: cash in, projects approved, units handed over — not only podium targets.
Until Parliament closes the classification gap, the CoB can flag the loophole while the levy keeps flowing. That is the accountability tension the CIOC report put on the National Assembly's desk.
Based on Eastleigh Voice reporting of the CIOC/CoB housing-levy file. Statutes and CoB reports control formal mandate and figures.
