Interns under the Affordable Housing programme will take home two paycheques every month after President William Ruto negotiated a deal with Consulting firms undertaking the project.
Speaking on Friday, January 23, during the launch of the Affordable Housing Internship Programme at State House, Nairobi, Ruto disclosed that the government would pay interns a monthly stipend. He urged the firms to also pay the interns some upkeep.
“We are going to pay a small stipend to these interns as they learn and help to supervise these sites. Consider paying them a small stipend, but I am not going to give you a number.
“As much as they want to learn, they need to go home and come back, pay rent a bit here and there, and survive,” the President stated.
The consulting companies will also earn more from the projects, with the Head of State confirming the National Treasury had approved additional pay for the firms.
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“We have consulted, and I asked the Ministry to give me some numbers, and for the sacrifices you have shown as consulting firms, we are going to increase what we are paying you from 2 per cent to three percent,” he added.
The government took in 5,000 graduates into the building sector across 40 professions, including engineering, architecture, planning, ICT, finance, environmental, surveying and construction. They will join the current workforce of more than 500,000 Kenyans already working on 240,000 units.
Ruto recognised the company’s firms for their commitment to undertake the project despite the negative rhetoric from some sections of the public. He further denounced claims that most of the contracted companies were international firms.
“It would have been easy for us to bring in the Chinese, but we said that these programmes must be able to provide us an opportunity to promote Kenyan Companies,” he confirmed.
