15/08/2026
Can Affordable Housing Build the Cities of Tomorrow?
๐ฎ๐ท Look closely at this extraordinary landscape.
It is not a futuristic city built in Europe or the Gulf.
This is Ekbatan Town in Tehran, Iran.
It is one of the most ambitious planned housing developments ever attempted in the Middle East.
When Ekbatan began taking shape in the 1970s, Iran was undergoing rapid urban transformation.
Rising from the edge of Tehran, its enormous concrete blocks, landscaped courtyards and carefully planned roads represented something far bigger than a collection of apartments.
It was a vision of how an entire community could live.
In their mindset were Schools, Shopping centres, Parks, Roads and other Essential Services.
Everything in Ekbatan was planned around the idea that residents should not simply have a roof over their heads, but should have a functioning neighbourhood around them.
The architecture was bold and unmistakable.
They built long, modular blocks arranged in striking geometric patterns, surrounded by an unusual amount of greenery.
For thousands of families, Ekbatan became more than housing. It became a city within a city. Eldoret City by the way is building a City within a City courtesy of Dr William Ruto. It is known as Railways City.
Ekbatan, decades later, has a story that offers an intriguing lens through which to look at Dr William Ruto's own housing ambitions : The Affordable Housing Programme.
William Ruto's model is different from Ekbatan.
Rather than creating one enormous mega-complex, the Affordable Housing Programme is being implemented across different towns and cities, with modern apartments and other housing developments forming part of a broader national programme.
Ekbatan changed Tehran's urban landscape.
William Ruto now has an opportunity to learn from the successes, and limitations, of such ambitious experiments.
The question is not simply how many houses he can build. The bigger question is: What kind of communities will those houses create? Will they become places where people merely sleep? Or will they become vibrant neighbourhoods with schools, businesses, parks, transport, security and opportunities?
William Ruto's Affordable Housing Programme is still writing its story.
And if the lessons of places like Ekbatan are taken seriously, the greatest legacy may not be the number of apartments constructed. It may be the communities that grow inside them.
Because ultimately, housing succeeds not when concrete rises into the sky, but when human lives rise with it.
Let us learn from Ekbatan.
