Double standards: women's property rights violations in Kenya

This report recounts the experiences of 130 women from various regions, ethnic groups, religions, and social classes in Kenya who have had their property rights flouted because they are women.The report presents evidence that women are excluded from inheriting, evicted from their lands and homes by in-laws, stripped of their possessions, and forced to engage in risky sexual practices in order to keep their property. When they divorce or separate from their husbands, they are often expelled from their homes with only their clothing. Married women can seldom stop their husbands from selling family property. A woman’s access to property usually hinges on her relationship to a man. When the relationship ends, the woman stands a good chance of losing her home, land, livestock, household goods, money, vehicles, and other property. These violations have the intent and effect of perpetuating women’s dependence on men and undercutting their social and economic status.Recommendations to the Government of Kenya include adopting key provisions in the draft constitution:prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex and marital status;guaranteeing women’s right to equal treatment with men, including equal rights to inherit, have access to, and control property;prohibiting any law, custom, or tradition that undermines women’s dignity, welfare, interest, or status;guaranteeing every person the right to acquire and own property;ensuring that every person has the right to adequate housing; andrequiring parliament to enact laws protecting spousal rights to inherit land and laws protecting matrimonial property during and at the termination of marriage.Recommendations for donors and international organisations, include the following:The World Bank, donors, and UN agencies must work with the government of Kenya to ensure that development policies and programs are designed and implemented to promote women’s property rights and that concrete steps are taken to eliminate discriminatory laws and customs that undermine development efforts, specifically in the area of women’s equal property rights.The World Bank and the IMF should press the Kenyan government to abide by its commitments under its current PRSP and make the elimination of women’s property rights violations a central part of its next PRSP. Donors should increase financial and technical assistance to civil society organisations and government offices that combat women’s property rights abuses, including those that provide legal services; shelter, educational assistance, food, and medical care; credit; civic education programs on women’s property rights; and training of judicial officers on international and domestic laws relating to women’s equal property rights. In particular, donors should support organisations that provide information (e.g., through paralegals) to men, women, and traditional leaders in rural areas, and should provide funding for local language translations of laws and informational materials. Both the timeframe for funded projects and the amount of assistance should increase in light of the chronic and widespread nature of women’s property rights abuses.The UNDP, UNIFEM, UNAIDS and other international organizations should study the links between women’s property rights abuses, poverty, violence, and HIV/AIDS in Kenya.The special rapporteur on adequate housing appointed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights should continue and expand his reporting on women’s property rights violations, including by examining how discrimination in inheritance and division of family property impede the realisation of women’s right to adequate housing.Other recommendations are made to these bodies and for institutional and programmatic reforms and initiatives