WUNRN
26/01/2011
Women in Kenya are consistently
unable to access and control housing on equal basis with men, thanks to the
Government’s reluctance to enact several crucial gender Bills, writes Ferdinand
Mwongela
According to Alexandriah Muhanji, Fida
Discrimination
Muhanji’s criticism of the Government was supported by
the Geneva-based international housing rights watchdog, Centre on Housing
Rights and Evictions (COHRE).
"Violations of women’s housing, land and property
rights are endemic in
In Gomez’s opinion, regarding inequality and gender
discrimination in land and housing practices,
Yet despite this harsh criticism, it’s not all doom
and gloom for women in
According to Carole Muchendu, Managing Editor of Homes
Kenya, a property magazine, though cases of gender discrimination still exist
it is limited to the poor rural folk.
"In urban settings many women are educated about
their rights, have access to both money and legal practitioners more
specifically in the context of the new Constitution and are, therefore, able to
buy and control property if not inherit it," she says.
COHRE’s concern is on the apparent failure of slum
upgrading programmes to address the needs of poor urban women. "In both
urban and rural areas, continued lack of protection of women’s property rights
in the context of HIV/Aids has made women much more vulnerable to forced
eviction and ‘dis-inheritance,’ greatly affecting those living with, or
otherwise affected by, the disease and diminishing their ability to mitigate
the pandemic and safeguard their health," noted COHRE.
"International human rights mechanisms must take
a strong stand in recognition of women’s equal rights to housing, land and
property," said Gomez.
|
A woman in
her rural home. Lack of protection of women’s property rights is rampant in
the rural areas. [PHOTOS: FILE/STANDARD] |
Fida’s deputy Executive Director Claris
Oganga says that something has been achieved in the field of women’s land and
property rights, but a lot more still needs to be done. She, for example,
praises the National Land Policy as progressive but needs to be broken down
into various legislations like the Law of Succession.
Legislation
"There is no law that deals with married women’s
property rights," she says. The National Land Policy under Matrimonial
Property recognises that "the existing laws and practices governing
matrimonial property discriminate against spouses whose contribution to the
acquisition of such property is indirect and not capable of valuation in
monetary terms."
It provides among others that the Government shall
enact specific legislation governing division of matrimonial property to
replace the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882
While the society’s perception has been changing, it
is evident that we still have a long way to go especially in rural areas and
informal settlements where discrimination on matters pertaining to property
rights and inheritance were in focus.
According to Muchendu specific legislation must be
enacted to help women in regard to property inheritance.
"Today many are evicted from their homes when
they divorce or their husbands die, stripped off their belongings and even
forced into customary sexual behaviours like wife inheritance and ritual
cleansing in order to keep their property," she says.
So in order to keep their property they are forced to
comply. Economic and Social Rights Centre representative Elijah Odhiambo
concurs with Muchendu. He says that many women, upon the death of the husband,
are faced with eviction from the matrimonial home and some are even
dis-inherited.
According to COHRE’s Gotzon Onandia-Zarrabe, this
sorry state can be helped through policies geared towards reforming the
traditional justice system and changing the attitudes toward women’s property
rights. She notes that inheritance and land distribution was also affected by
traditional practices and customary biases against women, especially in rural
areas.
While introducing the Government’s seventh periodic
report to CEDAW, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Development,
Naomi Shaban admitted that Kenyan women continue to face discrimination with
the delay of the enactment of several crucial gender bills.
"These Bills, including the Marriage Bill, the
Matrimonial Property Bill, the Family Protection Bill and the Equal
Opportunities Bill, generated by the Government are due to be considered by
Parliament," she promised.
Shaban believes that the implementation of the new
Constitution will be a major boost for women in matters pertaining to rights to
own, inherit and control property.
"The new Constitution is expected to change all
aspects of lives for Kenyans and particularly women," say the minister.
Although Fida’s Claris Oganga agrees that the
Constitution is committed to the improvement of women’s right to own property
she quickly points out that no Bills on the same had been prioritised.
Informal settlements
Lack of sanitation in informal settlements and
especially the use of latrines is another factor putting women at the risk of
sexual violence. In Amnesty International’s oral report to the session posted
on their website, the organisation questioned the Government’s and other
bodies’, commitment to slum upgrading and Millennium Development Goal (MDG)
policies, pointing out that inadequate access to sanitation in slums and
informal settlements prevails despite existing laws and the Government’s
ongoing slum-upgrading programmes.
"These policies provide for the fulfilment of
ambitious targets on sanitation including the international MDG target to
reduce by half, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable
access to basic sanitation. Yet these policies are not translated into
practice," read the presentation in an apparent criticism of the incessant
meetings and capacity building workshops that have moved the resolutions to
improve the livelihoods of slum dwellers to the boardrooms.
The exclusion of informal settlement in the City
Council’s plans is also blamed for the failure to address the deteriorating
sanitation therein.
"This gap ensures that national laws and building
standards, which require landlords to provide accessible toilets and places to
wash for their tenants are not implemented in the slums and informal
settlements by the City Council and the central government," noted Amnesty
International.