• Kenya
  • Resources
  • Business Services
  • Access to Land
  • Access to Land

Quick information guide

Matrimonial Property Act, 2013 has provisions on:

Equal status of spouses (Section 4)

A married women has the same rights as a married man:

  • to acquire, administer, hold, control, use and dispose of property whether movable or immovable;
  • to enter into a contract; and
  • to sue and be sued in her own name.

Special provisions on Matrimonial property (Section 12)

  • Matrimonial property cannot be sold, leased or mortgaged during a monogamous marriage without the consent of both spouses (See section 12(1));
  • Spouses in marriages, including the man and any of the man’s wives in the case of a polygamous marriage, have an interest in matrimonial property capable of protection by caveat, caution or any law in force on registration of title deeds;

Divorce or dissolution of polygamous marriage:

Matrimonial property act (Section 8) clarifies:

  • Matrimonial property acquired by the man after the man marries another wife shall be regarded as owned by the man and the wives taking into account any contributions made by the parties;
  • it is possible for a wife to hold her matrimonial property with the husband separate from that of the other wives; any wife can own matrimonial property equally with the husband without the participation of the other wife or wives.

Read more

Access to land

The Kenyan constitution under Article 40(1) ensured every person has equal rights either individually or in association with others. These rights extend even to the right to acquire and own property in any part of Kenya.

Women in Kenya  have  access  to  land  but  lack  control  over it,  this in turn stops them  from  using  title deeds  as  a form  of  collateral  when seeking financing for their businesses.

This challenge limits the improvement of their economic status.  Kenya has undertaken legal reforms that will help women acquire property.

 Women can now buy and register land individually and they can inherit land from their parents and husbands because of the matrimonial property act.

In 2018 the Kenya Land Alliance disaggregated and analyzed 1,000,099 out of the about 3,200,000 title deeds issued by the Government of Kenya from 2013 to 2017.

In this audit, KLA found out that only 103,043 titles representing 10.3 percent were issued to women while 865,095 titles representing 86.5 percent went to men.

In terms of hectares, out of 10,129,704 ha of land titled; women got 163,253 ha representing a paltry 1.62 percent, while men got 9,903,304 ha representing 97.76 percent.

Read more

angle-left Resource Conflict Institute (RECONCILE)

Resource Conflict Institute (RECONCILE)

Resource Conflict Institute is a non-profit making organization that was established in 1999 and registered in Kenya 2001. Through its Land Rights, Commons, Policy, and Livelihoods Advocacy Programme (L-COMPLY), RECONCILE undertakes research and advocacy work on laws, policies and institutions governing land and common property resources to ensure secure access, control and user rights for communities whose livelihoods depend on these resources, while also strengthening their sustainable management through targeted education on livelihoods diversification and wise use of land.

 

The programme works with stakeholders to address the challenges of privatization and development that threaten access, use and ownership rights of communities dependent on common resources for their livelihoods like pastoralists, forest dwellers and fisher folks. It supports capacity building among communities and civil society groups on land rights, administration, community land management and collaborative management of the commons to promote land rights advocacy for enhanced tenure security.

 

Read more;  

 

RECONCILE Priority Interventions

The programme under the L-COMPLY programme focuses on:

  • Promoting tenure security for communities in the face of privatization of common resources and the large-scale acquisitions of lands or large scale investments on the commons. This entails researching, developing and proposing inclusive and community friendly and empowering business models for investments on the commons.

 

  • Supporting the development of community land law and establishment of community land administration and management institutions at the county levels.

 

  • Developing collaborative frameworks to promote community’s participation in the management of common resources.

 

  • Promoting the wise use of the common resources and development of alliances and networks for the protection of the same.

 

  • Conflict resolution and management in the use and management of the common resources.

 

 

Read more;  

Contacts

  1. Conflict Institute (RECONCILE) Off Oginga Odinga Avenue, Next to Sunrise Evan’s Hospital, P. O. Box 7150-20100, Nakuru-Kenya. Phone: +254 722-256-059


Email;  

Website; 

share-alt