Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) in partnership with Indigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners (ILEPA) and through the support of the Global Green Grants is implementing a project on Climate change, Livelihoods, and energy targeted at Women and Youth in Narok County.

Throughout this pocket size booklet, Land Reform Volume 4, KLA proposes that collectively as a nation, and especially during this time of the constitutional review process. The principles outlined be embraced with the purpose of providing women a deliberate opportunity to engage in decision-making as regards land-use,management and ownership.

Land is the foundation of all human activities both social and economic. This is particularly so in agrarian economies such as Kenya. In these economies women are central to economic production in agriculture and livestock sectors. In Kenya, where the mainstay of most communities is agriculture and livestock production, women contribute up to 80 % of the workforce. Nevertheless, women only hold 1% of registered land titles in their names and around 5-6 % of registered titles held in joint names.

Women’s rights to land remain a contested issue in Kenya despite the acceptance of the principle of equality of the genders in law. The 2010 Constitution of Kenya clearly provides for the principles of equality and non-discrimination at Article 27. Moreover, in the land policy principles and the national values and principles of governance, gender equality is included. Despite these clear provisions however, gender inequality in land relations persists. The patriarchal social ordering that privileges men in land holding has been a greater barrier to women’s land rights.

This booklet reveals that women only got 103,043 titles representing 10.3 percent, while men got 865,095 titles representing 86.5 percent of the total. The glaring disparity is made clear when looked at against the actual land sizes and titled for women against men. The data sample shows that out of 10,129,704 hectares of land titled between 2013 and 2017 women got 163,253 hectares representing a paltry 1.62 while men got 9,903,304 hectares representing 97.76 percent.

Implementing Constitutional Land Provisions Now to Enable More Women to Own Land. March 8 is celebrated as the International Women’s Day – an event that celebrates women’s achievements on many scores ranging from the political to the social, and at the same time calling for gender equality.

The figures of public resources estimated to have been channeled into private pockets are so high one hopes, obviously against hope, that they would turn out to be typographical errors. The figures of public resources estimated to have been channeled into private pockets are so high one hopes, obviously against hope, that they would turn out to be typographical errors.

THEME: “Sustainable infrastructure, services and social protection for gender
equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls”

The women Land Rights Project is a project of Kenya Land Alliance that aims at actualisation Women land and property rights, as provided in the Constitution of Kenya, 2013 and as a means towards poverty alleviation. This considering the fact that, in Kenya where the foundation of most communities is Agriculture and livestock production, women contribute up to 80% of workforce yet they only hold 1% of registered land in their names and around 5-6% of registered titles are held in joint names (Kenya Land Alliance, 2013).

The Kilimanjaro Initiative is a rural women’s mobilisation from across Africa towards an iconic moment at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro in October 2016. The Kilimanjaro Initiative was conceived by the Rural Women during a meeting of rural women and civil society organisations in 2012, held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This initiative aims to create space for us as rural women to be able to participate in decision making processes about land and natural resources.

The purpose of this Issues Paper is to move the debate and stimulate discussion of issues relevant to women’s land rights and social security beyond the unfulfilled demands for gender responsive land policies and land legal framework. It is based on lessons learned from various research findings, Kenya Land Alliance experience and discussions with colleagues with whom we work with in various capacities on land policy and law reforms in Kenya and others parts of Africa.

The Rural Women’s Land Rights Charter of Kenya is a bold expression of the concerns/ issues and their aspirations of women living in rural areas on land matters. At the core of these aspirations is the  realization of secure and protected women’s land rights and security for their land-based livelihoods. Women from rural areas in 24 counties in Kenya highlighted their issues and expressed the kind of change they would like to see on matters land through the Rural Women’s Land Rights Charter.