Kenya - Women's Housing Rights Need Protection

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

Kenya is in the spotlight regarding violation of women’s housing, land and property rights. Serious questions on the Government’s commitment to address the plight of poor urban women was raised during the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women’s (CEDAW) conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, two weeks ago.

According to Alexandriah Muhanji, Fida Kenya representative at the meeting, the Government was taking far too long to pass and implement critical laws to protect the rights of women such as the Equality Bill and the Family Protection Bill, among others. The pussyfooting around the crucial Bills greatly contributes to the discrimination against women.

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 Kenya … women are consistently unable to access and control housing on an equal basis with men, with devastating consequences for them," said the organisation’s Senior Expert on Women and Housing Rights, Maria Gomez.

In Gomez’s opinion, regarding inequality and gender discrimination in land and housing practices, Kenya was in the good company of Sri Lanka and the Occupied Palestine Territory.

Yet despite this harsh criticism, it’s not all doom and gloom for women in Kenya.

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 England and establish appropriate legal measures to ensure that men and women are entitled to equal rights to matrimonial property.

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.