The Soweto East Zone B blocks tower over the older settlement they aim to replace.
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The government cannot agree how many houses it is building in Kibera.
The Soweto East Zone B housing project in Kibera costs Sh7.4 billion and is more than 80% built. How many houses it contains depends on which government source you read.
Boma Yangu, the state housing portal where applicants register and pay deposits, lists 4,054 units – 1,740 one-room, 1,690 two-room and 624 three-room. Those add up correctly.
Coverage of the President's site inspection on 28 April gives 4,465 units – 3,052 one-room, 1,100 two-room and 313 three-room. Those also add up correctly.
The two are not just different totals. They are different buildings. On the portal's numbers, one-room and two-room units are split almost evenly. On the April numbers, one-room units make up 68% of the estate. That changes who can actually live there as a family.
A third figure, 4,600, was used in reporting in May last year, alongside a stated ambition of 25,000 units for Kibera overall.
At Sh7.4 billion, the cost works out at about Sh1.66 million per unit on the higher count and Sh1.83 million on the lower one.
The project also includes a primary school and kindergarten, a health centre, a commercial block, internal roads, two boreholes, a sewer connection, a solid waste facility and drainage running to the Ngong River. More than 2,500 construction jobs were reported.
What no source publishes is the rent, the purchase price or the allocation criteria. For people in Kibera those are the only numbers that matter, and they are the ones not on the portal.
This story was put together by K N N from material first published by Boma Yangu.
That was a Kibra News Network report, read by an A I voice.
The Soweto East Zone B housing project in Kibera costs Sh7.4 billion and is more than 80% built. How many houses it contains depends on which government source you read.
Boma Yangu, the state housing portal where applicants register and pay deposits, lists 4,054 units — 1,740 one-room, 1,690 two-room and 624 three-room. Those add up correctly.
Coverage of the President’s site inspection on 28 April gives 4,465 units — 3,052 one-room, 1,100 two-room and 313 three-room. Those also add up correctly.
The two are not just different totals. They are different buildings. On the portal’s numbers, one-room and two-room units are split almost evenly. On the April numbers, one-room units make up 68% of the estate. That changes who can actually live there as a family.
A third figure, 4,600, was used in reporting in May last year, alongside a stated ambition of 25,000 units for Kibera overall.
At Sh7.4 billion, the cost works out at about Sh1.66 million per unit on the higher count and Sh1.83 million on the lower one.
The project also includes a primary school and kindergarten, a health centre, a commercial block, internal roads, two boreholes, a sewer connection, a solid waste facility and drainage running to the Ngong River. More than 2,500 construction jobs were reported.
What no source publishes is the rent, the purchase price or the allocation criteria. For people in Kibera those are the only numbers that matter, and they are the ones not on the portal.
KNN Newsroom is the staff byline for stories written, rewritten and edited at the Kibra News Network desk. Where a story credits an outside outlet, the original source is linked at the foot of the piece.
