The Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology has announced plans to refund all their staff all the housing Levy eductions made from staff members’ salaries back from January 2024.
The university declared this decision following an internal memo issued by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor,which said that the refunds will be processed by February 9.
All the University staff were through Court of Appeal’s dismissal of a stay application filed by the Government on January 26, 2024 will get their funds back.
The court orders suspended the housing levy deduction for January 2024.
The declaration form Court came after the University had already carried out the deductions as part of its payroll processing exercise took place earlier.
When the court orders came , the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) had advised its members to stop any further housing levy deductions in response to a Court of Appeal decision.
The housing Levy deductions are declared unconstitutional .
In it’s ruling, the Court of Appeal, on February 26th indicated that the Housing Levy was implemented without a proper legal framework.
According to Judge Majanja, while reading the judgment, said that the introduction of the housing levy amendment lacked a comprehensive legal framework,as a result brought discrimination and irrationality against persons in formal employment.
The current illegal Housing Levy deductions began to be deducted from employees’ salaries starting July 2023.
Being declared as a financial act, all the Employers were required to contribute 1.5 per cent as well as the employees giving a matching of the amount.
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University Bondo campus.;Image/x
The Kenya kwanza government had came up with the Levy saying that the purpose of the levy was to support the construction of affordable housing for low-income earners in Kenya.
The deductions however have faced much criticism from Kenyans.
