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Afterword: Securing womens land rights
- Edited by Birgit Englert, Universität Wien, Austria, Elizabeth Daley
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- Book:
- Women's Land Rights and Privatization in Eastern Africa
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 03 March 2023
- Print publication:
- 20 November 2008, pp 158-175
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- Chapter
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Summary
What Remains to be Done?
With this book we have tried to offer a nuanced picture of how the issues of privatization, gender relations and land rights are currently interacting in Eastern Africa as a contribution to the debate on how women's rights can best be secured in the overarching context of the increasing ‘privatization’ of land tenure. The detailed and differentiated analysis of what is happening on the ground that has been presented herein points up once more the continuing invalidity of some of the more common assumptions about women's rights to land in Eastern Africa, and the limits to securing them through policy and legislation alone. Women are not powerless actors, and the case study chapters of this volume in particular have provided ample illustration of the multiple and creative ways which women have found to claim and ensure their rights to land. We therefore hope that, collectively, we have provided fresh inspiration to all those who are in a position to change the situation for the better. It remains only to ask: What still needs to be done? How can women best be supported in their continuing struggles over land?
Drawing on all the contributions to this volume, and co-authored by all the contributors, this Afterword therefore aims to suggest the best ways forward in securing land rights for women. In the following sections, we first make some general observations about the impact of land tenure privatization on women's land rights thus far, and then examine how the new policies and laws address women's rights. In drawing together our conclusions we focus, first, on the best ways to implement the new policies and laws and, second, on the importance of civil society in supporting women's land rights more broadly.
Six - Struggling with In-Laws & Corruption in Kombewa Division, Kenya: The impact of HIV/AIDS on widows & orphans land rights
- Edited by Birgit Englert, Universität Wien, Austria, Elizabeth Daley
-
- Book:
- Women's Land Rights and Privatization in Eastern Africa
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 03 March 2023
- Print publication:
- 20 November 2008, pp 121-137
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
In Africa, access to, ownership of and control over land is a fundamental determinant for secure livelihoods, especially for the rural poor. Land provides a secure place to live, a site for economic and social security, and can serve as collateral for credit and other resources. In the last two decades, HIV/AIDS has been responsible for the weakening of rural economic safety nets and depletion of assets, chief amongst them being land. AIDS leaves many relatively young widows and orphans behind and the specific manner in which HIV/AIDS impoverishes households means that, upon finding herself a widow, a woman has few resources left with which to resist outside pressures exerted by neighbours or members of the extended family or to make choices that are in her own interest (Drimie 2002, 20). Violations of women's property rights are most frequent when it comes to inheritance and control of matrimonial property, particularly land, homes, vehicles, livestock, furniture and household items. A crucial issue in the discussion of land rights and gender in Africa is therefore the recognition of women's land rights upon the death of their husband, or children's rights upon the death of their parents.
As a study by Human Rights Watch (HRW 2003) on the Kenyan situation has pointed out, women widowed by HIV/AIDS often suffer injustices of both statutory and customary law that militate against their being able to retain marital property. Customary laws which are largely unwritten and liable to multiple interpretation coexist with formal laws and influence local norms that are based on patriarchal traditions in which men inherited and largely controlled land and other properties. These practices permeate contemporary customs that deprive women of property rights and make them powerless when these rights are infringed. While the Kenyan Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, it undermines this protection by condoning discrimination under customary laws that privilege men over women. Women's property rights are under constant attack from individuals – including government officials – for whom it is convenient to believe that women cannot be trusted with or do not deserve property. A complex mix of cultural, legal, and social factors therefore underlie women's property rights violations (HRW 2003). According to the 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), (CBS et al. 2004), about seven per cent of Kenyan adults between the age of 15 and 49, who were tested for the HIV-virus, were found to be infected.