Secure land rights for widows

June 23 was International Widows’ Day. The day is set aside by the United Nations to honour widows around the world. Across the country, many widow-centric organisations hosted celebrations for and with widows. One of these celebrations in Kisumu County was hosted by Nyanam, a local NGO. The theme for this year’s celebrations is “Accelerating gender equality through securing land rights for widows”.

Land loss is a common occurrence for widows in Kenya. According to Nyanam, 60 per cent of rural widows consider agricultural land as their primary asset, yet 70 per cent of these widows do not know the plot number of their land, 90 per cent do not have land titles in their names, 30 per cent are facing land-related conflicts, and about 28 per cent have lost property, especially land after the death of their husbands. The limited land ownership and rampant land violations are due to weak legal frameworks for widows to exercise their inheritance rights.

While the Constitution guarantees equal rights for men and women, widows in Kenya face significant hurdles in securing their land rights. Beyond the gender-biased customary laws that limit inheritance rights to male heirs, the statutory law is complex, and many widows remain unaware of their rights and procedures to secure these rights.

The judicial process for land succession is costly, effectively excluding poor widows from the possibility of owning land and subjecting their children to intergenerational poverty. In addition, the corruption in the local administration, where widows are asked for money and or sex for their land cases to be heard or judged fairly, keeps widows in economically insecure positions.

A widow’s right to land is tied to her well-being. Land insecurity affects widows’ physical, mental, economic and social well-being.

For rural widows, land is critical to their economic opportunities, livelihoods, food and nutrition security, and is linked to the educational and health outcomes for their children. We must reform institutional arrangements that keep widows in poverty and expose them to violence.

Ms Odhiambo is the Founder of Nyanam Widows Rising. [email protected]