The answer to this question is definitely yes: the Housing Development Fund is driven by good motives. But what are the risks involved in it?
According to KNBS, total wages in both the private and public sector amounted to Sh1.817 trillion in 2017.
This is a lot of money to be collected without a comprehensive plan on how it will be spent and how the contributors will benefit. That is why MPs initially rejected it.
Those who do not benefit from the fund will be repaid their money after 15 years or upon retirement whichever is earlier. Why then force them to save in the first place? Of course, if it is not mandatory many would opt out but still makes little sense.
Why should it be that only the employed are to contribute and benefit from the fund? Is it only those with jobs that need affordable housing? The formal sector employs 2.8 million Kenyans while the informal sector employs 14 million Kenyans. The Fund should, therefore, be open to all Kenyans just like NHIF and NSSF.A bad history has been seen and felt in the past when it comes to social security funds such as NSSF and NHIF. If the Housing Fund is not well defined it will turn into another slush fund for politicians with all manner of scandals.People have been paying in the past for the Railway Development Fund yet not even the Auditor General knows where the money has been disappearing to. Will the Housing Fund be a repeat of what happened in the past? Let us be careful.
Let us all be optimists but careful.
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