Finally, Kenyans were able to see what peaceful elections will mean for the country when they had a weekend of high-profile political rallies all over the country with no noise about goons or any form of political violence and not even tear gas anywhere.
If that can be maintained in the next whole year towards the elections in August 2027 it will be great for the country and for all the politicians including President Ruto who can have peaceful campaigns himself.
When the goons from all sides were wrecking the campaigns that is what everybody was screaming about and for some politicians it was their only hope for media attention. President William Ruto has to understand that peaceful campaigns and elections is the best gift he can give himself and to all Kenyans because it will give Kenyans a chance to listen to him as he explains what he has achieved for the country in the last four years and it looks pretty remarkable.
The noise and disturbances in opposition rallies does not help Ruto and in fact it hurts him because it just generates all sorts of disturbances for everybody.
President William Ruto needs to ensure that there are peaceful rallies all over the country and many of his competitors will just disappear because they have no affordable housing plans to talk to Kenyans about like he has been doing lately, so what is his problem with making sure rallies are peaceful.
The opposition has no healthcare plan for Kenyans and when President Ruto talks about 32 million Kenyans enrolled in SHA today which is the primary source of healthcare, the opposition will be desperate to change the topic and ask Kenyans to completely forget anything to do with how they will access healthcare after the opposition abolishes SHA should they win the election just to fight Ruto with no alternatives whatsoever.
At least Edwin Sifuna was smart enough now that they had a chance to tell Kenyans his plans should he will the presidency to come up with a plan for the affordable housing now emerging all over the country.
While addressing Kenyans in Nairobi Sifuna promised to hand over the affordable housing President Ruto has built to police officers which means at least, he is not burning them down like other opposition leaders who do not even want to see those new houses because they remind them that William Ruto is doing things to help Kenyans improve their lives and that makes them very sad because it means they face a dead end in front of them on their way to State House.
So now Kenyans can hear their politicians arguing about real things that will affect everybody and their families after the 2027 elections. Speaking in Kisumu on Monday during the second day of his four-day tour of Nyanza, President Ruto said the construction of affordable houses was itself an avenue for creating jobs and putting money in the markets of young people.
“Let me enlighten you: yes, Kenya’s problem is income, but housing is what gives us employment. When these youths work in those houses they get money; that is what we call income,” he said.
Ruto was responding to remarks Sifuna made on Sunday during Linda Mwananchi’s inaugural rally at Jacaranda grounds in Nairobi, where the Nairobi senator challenged the President’s approach to tackling the country’s slum problem.
“Mr William Ruto, the slums in Nairobi are not a housing problem; they are an income problem. If you give these people money in their pockets, they will look for decent houses to live in,” Sifuna said.
He questioned the President’s assertion that affordable housing construction would help eradicate slums, arguing that existing informal settlements had remained in place four years after the programme was launched.
Ruto said Sifuna’s argument overlooked the employment opportunities created through the construction of affordable homes.
He said the income generated by young people working on housing projects would subsequently enable them to buy food, create other opportunities and afford decent housing.
“When they have income, they can buy food, they can create opportunities for themselves and they can live in decent housing. So, our affordable housing programme solves three problems – housing, income and employment,” Ruto said.
Sifuna, however, has questioned whether the programme is addressing the housing needs of people currently living in Nairobi’s informal settlements.
The competing positions come as the Kenya Kwanza administration seeks to defend its record on affordable housing, four years after taking office.
In its latest self-assessment released following the 15th National Development Implementation Committee meeting, the government said it had completed about 10,000 affordable housing units across the country, with approximately 8,000 already occupied.
The government said a significantly larger number of units were under construction or at various stages of implementation.
In June 2026, the President said the government was building 300,000 housing units and 180,000 student hostels, putting completed affordable housing units at 11,000.
President William Ruto with home owners during the handover of Affordable Housing units on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.
In the media this week the issue of affordable housing plans from President Ruto is facing public scrutiny as more units become available to Kenyans to move into and the housing demand in Kenya is way off the roof.
It is time for Kenyans to listen to not just the plans and progress President William Ruto has done with regards affordable housing but also to listen to the plans from Rigathi Gachagua, Kalonzo Musyoka, Martha Karua and Edwin Sifuna as to how they intend to make housing available and affordable to Kenyans.
“We have already planned 20,000 houses for the police. We are way ahead,” Ruto said.
His remarks came a day after Sifuna, speaking at a Linda Mwananchi rally at Jacaranda Grounds in Nairobi, said police officers deserved decent and affordable housing because of their role in maintaining security.
Sifuna and Embakasi East MP Babu Owino also praised police officers for what they described as professionalism in managing the opposition supporters’ convoy in Nairobi.
But Ruto accused Sifuna and his team of lacking an understanding of the housing programme.
“You have no capacity to discuss housing because you have no plan, you have no agenda, you have no programme,” the President said.
Ruto defended the Affordable Housing Programme, saying it was creating jobs for young people while providing houses, markets and hostels across the country.
He said 44 billion shillings had been set aside for housing-related projects in Kisumu County, including 12,000 housing units, 20 markets and hostels for 12,000 young people.
“Across the entire country, 130,000 houses are being built, 600 markets are being built, and hostels for 180,000 of our young people are being built,” Ruto said.
He added that about 1.1 million young people were currently working under the housing, markets and hostels programme.
President Ruto also challenged the opposition over its criticism of the programme, asking what would happen to the young people employed through the projects if the programme was stopped.
His comments came after Sifuna questioned the impact of affordable housing on Nairobi’s informal settlements.
Sifuna challenged Ruto to identify a Nairobi slum that had been eliminated as a direct result of the housing programme.
“When Ruto was elected, the Mathare slum was already there. In Mukuru kwa Njenga, there was a slum. In Kibera, there was a slum,” Sifuna said.
He argued that the housing crisis was also linked to low incomes, saying many Nairobi residents lacked enough disposable income to afford decent homes.
The Affordable Housing Levy requires employees to contribute 1.5 per cent of their gross salary, with employers making a similar contribution.
The government has set a target of constructing 250,000 affordable housing units annually, mainly targeting low- and middle-income households.
Nairobi senator Edwin Sifuna, Siaya Governor James Orengo and Embakasi East MP Babu Owino
The good news for everybody is that the country on Sunday witnessed what has been unusual in recent times when the Linda Mwananchi movement held its inaugural rally in Nairobi without reported violence or the use of teargas that has often accompanied opposition rallies.
The convoy drew large crowds from the Central Business District, where the leaders attended a church service at the Holy Family Basilica in the morning, before heading to the iconic Jacaranda grounds in Eastlands for the rally.
With no side hustles and all that nonsense, Linda team were down to business and the first issue was who will be their presidential candidate and right now it looks pretty obvious that Edwin Sifuna will be the Linda Presidential candidate and he can compete with Kalonzo, Matiang’i and Martha Karrua and right now nobody has any idea where that will end.
Some opposition leaders want their presidential candidate declared as soon as possible and that cannot happen because Gachagua needs to wait until May 2027 to see if he has any chance to be forgiven by the Supreme Court and even he knows that will not happen but he is going buy as much time as he can get.
Once Gachagua is thrown out of the window, Kalonzo Musyoka will grab the presidential ticket for the opposition and the real issue for Edwin Sifuna is if Gachagua can allow him to be Kalonzo’s running mate and that is very difficult because Gachagua will want his Kikuyu candidate in there and so far that is John Methu who is his boy now in charge at home when he is dancing to traditional songs in the USA.
The good news for President William Ruto which he needs to stick to is let Kenyans have free and peaceful campaigns going forward and he might not even have anybody to fight with out there.
With peace and quiet the Kenyan opposition will have a nightmare within themselves fighting to have a candidate to face Ruto and the president himself can go all across the country talking to the nation in terms of what he has done for Kenyans in four years as their president.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
