Housing and Urban Planning Principal Secretary Charles Hinga has tabled a proposal to hike rent for government employees occupying state-owned houses.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Hinga said he has written to the National Treasury seeking approval to review the rent for the 56,892 civil servants’ houses.
Hinga told the committee that the rent has remained constant for the past 23 years hence the review.
“There is a need for the increment of rent. I have written to the National Treasury to allow us to relook at rental costs. We have not increased rent since the last review that was done in 2001,” Hinga said.
If approved, the proposal will affect civil servants across different ranks including the ones paying as low as Ksh1,000 monthly.
The PS said the expected monthly rental income from all the units is estimated at Ksh127,048,750 but the ministry has not been hitting this target.
According to Hinga, rent for civil servants’ averages Ksh2,200 but there are those who pay as low as Ksh1,000 a month for a single room.
However, there are public servants who pay as high as Ksh30,000 per month for a three bedroomed along State House.
“Super scale public servants living in upmarket areas like State House should pay between Ksh90,000 to Sh100,000 per month,” he said.
Hinga explained that the state houses are categorized as institutional, police and pool units due to several factors.
Besides, he said the houses are categorized into low, medium, and high grades.
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Auditor General Questions Rent Collection on Govt Houses
Hinga appeared before the Committee to respond to audit queries for the Housing department for the financial year 2021/2022.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu flagged the department’s failure to collect a potential annual rent of Ksh1.524 billion assuming full occupancy of the 56,892 houses.
Gathungu said the government collected Ksh1.018 billion, an under collection of Kh506.59 million in 2021/22.
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Additionally, she said the department has not collected Ksh1.16 billion rent for the last two years and the amounts collected before financial year 2019/20 remain unknown.
Hinga attributed the shortfall to Ksh16.99 million that was deducted from the tenants by various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) but was not remitted to the State Department.
He explained that Ksh35.65 million was not collected from 1,714 houses dedicated to various institutions.
The PS also mentioned that Ksh42.47 million was not collected from 1,501 houses that were not attracting rent.
