Property ownership among women in Kenya has fallen in the past eight years despite empowerment initiatives, a new government report shows.
House ownership among women in the country declined to 33 percent in 2023 from 42 percent in 2014.
Among the group, five percent have sole ownership of houses while 28 percent own it jointly with their spouse or partner.
Among women who own a house, only nine per cent have a title deed or any other government-recognised document with their name on it.
The majority at 73 per cent do not have a title deed or any other government-recognised document.
“Women in rural areas at 44 percent are more likely to own a house than women in urban areas at 17 percent, although women in urban areas are much more likely to have a title deed for the house they own than women in rural areas,” KNBS said in the 2022 demographic health survey.
On land ownership 25 percent of women own agricultural land. Three percent own land alone, while 20 per cent own land jointly with their spouse or partner with only seven percent of women own nonagricultural land.
Forty-five percent of men age 15–49 own a house, 31 per cent own agricultural land, and eight per cent own nonagricultural land.
The survey found that house ownership increases with age and is highest among women aged 45–49 accounting to 63 percent.
House ownership among women is increasingly becoming a preserve of the wealthy with only three percent of women in the lowest wealth quintile owning a house and have their name on the ownership documents.
This is small compared to 29 per cent of women in the highest wealth quintile.
Women ownership of land also declined over the period with 25 percent of women owning agricultural land, including three percent who solely own such land.
This is a drop from the 39 percent of women who owned land either alone, jointly, or both in 2014.
Sixty-two percent of women do not have a title deed for the agricultural land they own, and 13 percent who own agricultural land have a title deed with their name on it.
Land ownership remains easier in the rural areas with a majority of women at 32 percent owning agricultural land, as compared with 14 percent in urban areas.
However, women in urban areas are three times more likely to have formally registered their ownership of the land than the rural counterparts.
Among men 22 percent have their name on the title deed, while 59 per cent do not have a title deed for their agricultural land.
Eight percent of men age 15–49 own non-agricultural land, including six percent who own non-agricultural land alone and two percent who own land jointly with others.
Forty-six percent of men who own nonagricultural land have their name on the title deed, and 43 percent report that their non-agricultural land does not have a title deed.
