By Miraj Guo
September 14, 2026
President William Ruto has hit back at Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna and opposition leaders backing the Linda Mwananchi movement, dismissing their remarks on affordable housing as lacking a clear plan.
The exchange followed remarks made by Sifuna during a Linda Mwananchi political rally at Jacaranda Grounds in Nairobi, where he said the movement would allocate units built under the Affordable Housing Programme to police officers if it took over government.
Sifuna also criticised the government’s housing strategy, arguing that the main challenge facing residents of Nairobi’s informal settlements is an “income problem, not a housing problem,” and that Kenyans need better incomes to afford decent homes.
Speaking during his ongoing development tour in Kisumu on Monday, President Ruto said his administration was already ahead of the opposition on housing for security personnel.
“We are way ahead of them. We have already planned and allocated 20,000 housing units for the police,” Ruto said.
The President criticised Sifuna and other opposition leaders for attacking the Affordable Housing Programme while simultaneously promising to distribute the houses to police officers if they came to power.
Ruto further accused the opposition of lacking a clear housing agenda.
“They have no capacity to discuss housing because they have no plan,” the President said.
Ruto also dismissed the Linda Mwananchi team as “fools”, questioning why they would oppose the housing programme while making plans to allocate the same houses once completed.
The government has previously outlined plans to reserve a portion of affordable housing units for security agencies, including the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), National Police Service, National Youth Service (NYS) and Kenya Prisons Service.
Eligible officers are also expected to access the housing units through institutional mortgage arrangements offered at relatively low interest rates.
The exchange comes as President Ruto continues his four-day development tour of the Nyanza region, where he is launching and inspecting projects covering water, roads, affordable housing, agriculture and infrastructure.
