• Only 1.26 per cent of title deeds issued between 2013 and 2017 are held by women.
• Elders in Kisii and Kakamega help wives leave home but they are not allowed to claim share of the house, land or children
In 2016, Ruth K, a 40-year-old mother of two in Kilifi, was forced out of their matrimonial home by her husband.
She struggled to support herself financially. After the divorce, she was left with nothing.
Ruth told Human Rights Watch that despite helping her husband acquire property, her name was never in any of them.
“I don't have my name on any of the property we acquired even when I took a loan from my chama (women's financial group) to pay for it. He never allowed me to have my name on the title.
“He would say 'I'm the man of the house, what I have you have. If I own it, you own it.' According to his Kisii custom women cannot own anything in their name. Who will support me to get my share? I'm on my own," she said.
Ruth said in most cases, where the husband holds all the power in the marriage, it could be futile for the wife to insist on having her name on the property.
Women who want to leave their husbands only get to carry their personal belongings and not claim any share of the house or land from their husbands, Human Rights Watch and Fida say in a report.
Most are forced to leave children behind, the NGOs say in the report titled "The Women and Matrimonial Property Rights in Kenya".
The organisations say discriminatory social and traditional practices on marriages and inheritance compromise women's ability to own, manage, and control land and property.
More women from Kilifi and Kakamega counties were interviewed for the report.
The two counties were ranked among the top five with the highest rates of divorce and separation in 2008 by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics.
"We also reviewed and analysed data from 56 divorce and matrimonial property division case files with a final judgment between 2014-2019 from courts in Kakamega and Kilifi counties," reads the report.
The two counties also reflect unique ethnic and religious aspects with similar distinctions such as dowry, custody of children, and traditional practices that discriminate against women owning land and property.
"The problem for women begins even before they seek a divorce as they are never able to own, and independently make decisions, over, land and property within the context of the traditional marriage in the first place," reads the report.
Despite Kenya enacting laws to ensure equality of spouses in marriage and equitable distribution of matrimonial property, women continue to face challenges in acquiring property in their own name or jointly with spouses.
In the events of death or divorce, women have little access to judicial and traditional dispute resolution mechanisms.
They also face legal ambiguity that hinder their right to matrimonial property when they do.
The Human Rights Watch research found that even when women do seek relief from the courts, they do not always get justice.
The judiciary is unprepared to hear non-monetary contributions and equitable distribution of property, it said.
Sometimes, inconsistent interpretation and application of laws often result in discriminatory distribution of matrimonial property.
The latest data from 2008, shows that 212,972 people countrywide were divorced and 355,018 were separated.
According to the report, the data lack estimates of applications for the division of matrimonial property and official gender-disaggregation data on individual and joint ownership of land and property in Kenya.
However, 2018 data from Kenya Land Alliance shows that women hold a paltry 1.62 per cent of all land-title deeds issued between 2013–2017.
(edited by o. owino)