Divorced women should get half the family property because of their contribution in a marriage, a court heard.
Yesterday, the Court of Appeal further heard that divorced women would continue to be deprived of matrimonial property unless Parliament repealed outdated laws governing family wealth distribution.
The law, borrowed from English Law, dates back more than 200 years. But whereas the British had made amendments to reflect new trends in England, Kenya's Parliament - made up mostly of men - was reluctant to amend it for "selfish reasons", submitted Dr Gibson Kamau Kuria.
"This court should take cognisance (of the fact) that the men in Parliament are beneficiaries of the inequalities and injustices when it comes to the distribution of matrimonial property, and this explains why they are reluctant to change the law," he said.
Dr Kuria was making submissions in a case in which former diplomat Peter Mburu Echaria is challenging a High Court decision that awarded half of his 118 acres of land to his former wife Priscilla Njeri. Mr Echaria wants her to claim 10 per cent.
Appellate judges, P. K. Tunoi, Emmanuel O'Kubasu, Philip Waki, Erastus Githinji and William Deverell will give their verdict on October 13.
Yesterday, lawyer Anthony Njoroge, representing Mrs Njeri, said: "Apart from household responsibilities, women give birth to children and raise them thereafter. This is a indirect contribution in the acquisition of the matrimonial property."
Mr Njoroge differed with Dr Kuria's earlier submission that a divorced woman had no right to matrimonial property if she did not take part in earning it. Dr Kuria had said a divorced woman could only claim a share of what she contributed towards acquiring.
But Mr Njoroge said that was a violation of human rights, as it amounted to denying a divorced woman her right to the property she worked to acquire when the marriage lasted.
Ms Njeri said the 10 per cent her former husband wanted to give her was too little, when one considered that she opted to stay out of work for eight year to raise their three children.
Ms Njeri, who has since retired from the Education ministry, left the home in Tigoni in 1987, following a misunderstanding with her husband.