President William Ruto on Tuesday launched the Affordable Housing Internship Programme, part of his administration’s larger effort to tackle the country’s growing unemployment crisis.

Speaking at the State House, Nairobi, Ruto highlighted the potential of the housing sector to drive large-scale job creation.

“We are bringing on board and hiring another 4000 graduates from our universities and TVETs to work with us under your firm, to make sure that they acquire the knowledge and skills that are necessary to make them professionals, as we create more companies,” said Ruto.

Ruto noted that the interns will help improve supervision on housing projects and shorten construction timelines. He called for more firms with diverse expertise to join the initiative to accommodate even more interns.

“We need to double the numbers in the housing programme by creating an additional work shift. We have many plumbers, carpenters, electricians, and others coming out,” he added. 

The president said the government aims to scale up the number of workers in the housing sector from the current 320,000 to 600,000, calling on firms and the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development to work together.

Architecture and engineering students will join planning and design teams, while quantity surveyors and economists will support cost estimation and value engineering. He further said that law and planning interns will assist with land regularisation and the issuance of sectional title deeds for housing units.

Acknowledging the role of the informal sector, Ruto said, “We want to bring on board technical staff to work with the juakali sector to formalise it, so that we can improve the quality of their output.” 

Ruto reiterated that the economy is on the right path and assured Kenyans of continued government efforts to improve it.

The initiative comes amid rising frustration among Kenya’s youth over unemployment, the high cost of living, and other biting issues.