African Woman and Child Feature Service

Recently, a very prominent doctor in Kenya who was operating from the Coastal town of Mombasa died. His brother, a pastor with the Anglican Church of Kenya in Ugenya, Siaya District decided that his widow had no business being in his house, as she had not had any children with him. The doctor and his second wife had married according to the community’s traditions and even held a church wedding to legalise their marriage after the death of his first wife. They had lived together for more than ten years.

Why did this man of God feel that his brother’s wife did not deserve to be in the home she had been living in irrespective of whether they had children or not? Was not this the woman who took care of his brother in good and bad times? Did she not nurse him in his sick bed only as a wife can do?

Where did the Pastor leave his moral ethics as he, a man whom society expected to defend and protect the disadvantaged including widows, should have been at the forefront of defending and comforting his sister-in-law?  Was this woman not human? Did she not have the right to human and women’s rights?

Human Rights Day will be marked all over the world on December 10, 2011. This will also mark the end of the 16 days of activism against gender based violence campaign which started on November 25.

While violence against women has received a lot of global attention, not many people link it to their human rights. It is always being stressed that women’s rights are also human rights. This is why when we campaign to end violence against women, we must also fight for their rights to be given due recognition.

One area where women, particularly those from Africa have faced violence is in times of land and property inheritance. Many communities, and individuals, whether learned or illiterate have treated women’s right to land and property ownership as well as inheritance with contempt.

Mistreating of women and meting violence on them when it comes to their rights in relation to property and land cannot be understated, and the case gets worse with women who have lost their partners.

Human rights of each and every individual must be respected, including that of widows.

The National Land Policy 2009 recognises human rights for all Kenyans and protection against discriminatory laws, customs and practices.

Recognition, protection and registration of community rights to land and land based resources taking into account multiple interests of land users including women is one factor that the Policy highlights.

The National Land Policy is key to ensuring that legislation around land will ensure effective protection of women’s rights to land and related resources. The legislation must enforce existing laws and establish a clear framework to protect inheritance rights of women. This will then put in their tracks, men like the pastor from Siaya who felt that once his brother had died, then the widow had no business being in the homestead.

By setting out to observe the International Human Rights Day, the United Nations was looking at how to reiterate the issue of dignity and justice for all, women included. In being at the tail end of the activism against gender based violence, this day reiterates that it is only elimination of violence against women that will lay a strong foundation to ensure that their human rights are respected and upheld. This includes respecting their right to inherit and own property.

When women suffer violence as a result of being denied their right to inherit property, their children also suffer in the process because rarely will a woman go away and leave behind her children.

By ensuring that women’s human rights are respected and protect, their access to property and land will be made easier. Eventually this will lead to reduction in poverty levels as food and accommodation will not be problem. This is especially true where a home was bought or constructed by the father/husband before he died or if in the case of rural women, they already had a homestead put up for them.

It is, therefore, important that as Kenya gets underway in writing legislation on land and property rights, women’s human rights must be paramount if the Millennium Development Goals and Vision 2030 are to be realised.