Secure land rights for widows

June 23 was International Widows’ Day. The day is set aside by the United Nations to honour widows around the world. Across the country, many widow-centric organisations hosted celebrations for and with widows. One of these celebrations in Kisumu County was hosted by Nyanam, a local NGO. The theme for this year’s celebrations is “Accelerating gender equality through securing land rights for widows”.

Land loss is a common occurrence for widows in Kenya. According to Nyanam, 60 per cent of rural widows consider agricultural land as their primary asset, yet 70 per cent of these widows do not know the plot number of their land, 90 per cent do not have land titles in their names, 30 per cent are facing land-related conflicts, and about 28 per cent have lost property, especially land after the death of their husbands. The limited land ownership and rampant land violations are due to weak legal frameworks for widows to exercise their inheritance rights.