Kenya: Court of Appeal Upholds Affordable Housing Levy Law

What the report says

Kenya’s Court of Appeal has upheld the Affordable Housing Act, 2024 and the related Affordable Housing Levy, rejecting two appeals that sought to overturn the law. The ruling, reported by Capital FM and distributed by AllAfrica, was delivered by a five-judge bench in Nairobi and confirmed a prior High Court decision that had already dismissed constitutional challenges to the statute.

The appellants had argued that the law infringed rights and principles linked to property, devolution, public participation, taxation and access to adequate housing. They also questioned the legal basis for assigning the Kenya Revenue Authority commissioner-general the role of collecting the levy. The appellate judges found no merit in the objections and left the levy’s legal framework and the Affordable Housing Fund in place.

The court also said there was adequate public participation during the law’s passage and declined to award costs, citing the public interest nature of the case. One part of the ruling nevertheless noted that the Commission on Revenue Allocation should have been consulted before Parliament debated and passed the bill, based on the constitutional role described in Article 205. The decision matters because the levy remains a central financing tool for Kenya’s affordable housing program, which has been politically and legally contested since its enactment.