The Kenyan government has been fixed the goal to build 500,000 homes for Kenyan people under the Affordable and Dignified Housing Plan by the year 2022. The President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya in 2019 in reply to rising housing costs and increasing trends of rural-urban migration, decided that his administration would see to it that 500,000 homes would be built by the year 2022 as part of the Nation’s Affordable and Dignified Housing Plan (AHP) and also restricted to their ministries that the unit cost of a home to be built should not exceed 305 USD (~ 30,500 KSH) per square meter. They explored the idea that housing types should be based on three income ranges, 125,000 units for social housing programs,225,000 low-cost units, 150,000 units to resolve the ‘mortgage gap’ of middle-income earners. Due to this commitment, UN-Habitat, an office of the United Nations which seeks to promote sustainable urbanization as a driver of development and strives for adequate shelter for all Kenyan population.

In response to the Kenyan government’s goal to build 500,000 homes under the Affordable and Dignified Housing Plan by the year 2022, Engineering for Change and UN-Habitat developed this research paper to present a cross section of appropriate construction technologies to guide and inform decision makers within Kenya’s Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development. The research was divided into two components. The first presents a case study of Brazil’s “Minha Casa Minha Vida” program conducted in 2009 to rapidly build 4 million homes. This study presents challenges of financing, implementation, and scale that were encountered during the effort. The second stage of research presents an analysis of appropriate construction technologies available in Kenya. Interviews were conducted with 12 construction professionals and manufacturers of relevant emerging construction technologies. The quantitative and qualitative data is then distilled into a graphic, comparable framework to assist Kenyan officials in understanding the benefits and limitations of the residential construction sector. A concluding discussion offers thoughts of the researchers and areas of additional consideration that extend beyond the scope of the research.