From culture to human rights
Jessica Oluoch, Allan Maleche, Emily Otieno, Tabitha Saoyo
Kelinkenya
The existence of progressive land, property and family laws creates the assumption that the
rights of women are exhaustively provided for and thus adequately protected.
Culture and gender interconnect in intricate ways since culture must be well understood in
order to understand the duty bearers and gatekeepers in the community, who hold the power
to define the collective community identity. The reality of intra-community diversity makes
it imperative to ensure that all voices within a community, including those that represent
the interests, desires and perspectives of specific groups, are heard, without discrimination
to achieve the full realization of rights within that context.
There exist various cultural practices among communities in Kenya that discriminate
against women and amount to the direct and indirect violation of their rights enshrined
in the national laws, policies and the international instruments duly ratified.
What the law says on land rights
In matters relating to the right to access justice, the Constitution of Kenya has included the
principle that “alternative forms of dispute resolution including reconciliation, mediation,
arbitration and traditional dispute resolution mechanisms shall be promoted so long as the
traditional dispute resolution mechanisms are not used to contravene the bill of rights or to
contradict the Constitution1. It further provides for the entrenchment of equal rights among
men and women in matters relating to property rights and land ownership. It has obligated
parliament to put in place legislation to protect the rights of spouses including protection of
the matrimonial home and the rights of spouses to inherit family property.
Kenya has also ratified various international laws that provide for the rights of widows to an
equitable share in the inheritance of the property of her husband. She is further accorded the
right to continue to live in the matrimonial house. In the case of remarriage, she shall retain
this right if the house belongs to her or she has inherited it2
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2019
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