Auditor Finds Ruto's 269 Projects With No Land Papers, MPs Demand Answers

 

Lawmakers are digging into the State Department for Housing and Urban Development. Their probe was triggered by an Auditor General's report. The report found that 269 affordable housing projects lack land documents. 

The matter was raised at a meeting of the National Assembly's Special Funds Accounts Committee on Thursday, November 12, 2026.

The audit covers the 2024/2025 financial year. It reveals that only 14 projects hold title deeds. Nine have letters of allotment, while 23 have certificates of search. Two projects sit on community land.

According to the report, the land has not been recorded as an asset. The Affordable Housing Fund bought no land of its own. Instead, houses went up on plots controlled by national agencies and county governments.

Committee members put hard questions to Affordable Housing CEO Joe Mutugu and Housing PS Charles Hinga. They wanted to know what was being done to plug the gaps. 

They also asked how individual homeowners could receive sectional title deeds without original ownership papers.

Mutugu admitted that the land papers are indeed missing. He blamed weak land registration, a problem he said has dogged public assets for years. He told MPs the Affordable Housing Board is working to close the gaps across its portfolio.

The Board has contacted county governors whose counties host housing projects. Some governors have already signed resolutions to help produce ownership documents. The Board's letters targeted projects built or underway on county land.

Cabinet has approved the vesting of 275 land parcels in the Affordable Housing Board. Government ministries and agencies were instructed to finish the required approvals and submit documents. 

The finding poses a blow to the housing scheme that President William Ruto champions as a route out of slums.