Accelerating adoption of green construction technology

In rural Kenya (mostly western Kenya) the almost 59% of houses are semi-permanent including the peri- urban areas . According to Unihabitat report ,by 2050 nearly 70% of global population will be residing in urban areas.These points s to the need for affordable and greener construction means that are profitable to land owners and bequeath quality living standards to urban dwellers. We are already seeing settlements with characteristics of slums coming up : tin/ mudwalled shacks ,lack of electricity ,lack of water ,lack of quality washrooms and so on in areas like Bungoma county , Kakamega county and Siaya county.Largely in remote areas it's still normal to have mud walled or tin walled  dwellings with other homesteads lacking basic sanitation amenities.

The arithmetic of a poor man's construction conundrum points to the use of expensive , environment destructive and unsustainable  construction materials like the firewood reliant red fire brick that has been around since the colonial times and consumes large amounts of cement and sand ,and exorbitant labour costs .

In the event where their is demand for cheaper housing , availability of land and prohibitive construction costs ,land owners will resort to the Slum-like strategy of availing affordable rental housing units.

The Interlocking Hollow compressed stabilized Earth Brick (CSEB) technology has been in Africa for almost three decades. In Kenya preliminary attempts by Ministry of housing to introduce these technology across the 47 counties fell flat because of lack of popular support  among the technological enablers , public awareness , sufficient training of manual labourers and foremen on the CSEB building technology in its entirety.

Our main aim is to popularize CSEB , offer short skill based training courses to all experienced manual labourers and fore-men in housing construction across all counties of western Kenya (8 counties in total).

After training we then secure legally binding agreements with land owners in peri-urban areas where slum like settlements and conditions are on the verge of manifesting because of demand in housing and shortage their off of the same. We then engage in joint or Triple ventures where we aid these land owners secure funding for construction ,while we avail CSEB for building and the labour required.

We will create a digital register of all trained artisans , labourers and foremen and contractors who are conversant with CSEB as a building technic.This will become easier for anyone in need of CSEB experts to access them independently.

Young families: in most peri-urban areas young adults are starting families and their fore need accommodation arrangements that suit their small families.Most of these people are employed in the informal industry where they earn less than $100 a month which means that total annual revenues of two primary family bread winners is $4800 .These housing solutions is affordable to land owners which results in increase in house units across the counties .With respect to behaviors of rural property markets , these housing units with all sanitation amenities will be affordable to the average start-up family.

Land owners- land is a contentious issue in Africa ,let alone Kenya .Due to legal and policy loopholes ,their is a lack of appetite for investments in property in the lower segments of the market , which has largely been a contributor to lack of adoption affordable ,greener construction technologies.These has left land owners poor and incapable of marshalling resources and investments to build greener ,on demand affordable homes.Land owners will benefit from our advocacy and lobbying strategies to Connect them to investments and CSEB as a construction game changer.These will help in preventing the emergency of slums in peri- urban areas in rural western Kenya.

Me and my team of four are indigenes of these counties and we are the young families that are underserved and living in these conditions.We have first hand experience on the challenges at hand ,a linguistic and cultural connection that will enable us speak to the people in a way that they understand.We have also seen the impact of the current building culture and it's impact on forestry .We also understand the property markets in these areas and have reliable blue prints on how to break even and impact the communities positively for generations to come.

Legal barriers- Land being a sensitive issue in Kenya ,we have seen considerable unwillingness by land owners to cede to partnerships that can benefit them and their communities for fear of land grabbing and theft of their properties.We their fore need assistance to build credibility and capacity to gain there trust in the legal domain.

Cultural- as stated earlier CSEB came to Kenya long ago but the use of Red Fire bricks which has been around for more than a century is engrained in the psych of the construction industry.Their is need of a paradigm shift in housing and construction industry towards CSEB .We also need assistance in catapulting communities in these direction.