Cultural beliefs are to blame for the fact that only one per cent of women own land in the country, the National Land Commission has said.
NLC commissioner James Tuitoek said there is an urgent need to address the anomaly.
He said that the commission was undertaking an intensive study to establish the issues around land ownership before making its recommendations.
Tuitoek said that there was a need to enact friendly policies to protect women so that they could also own land as per the constitution.
He spoke in Naivasha during a workshop on land and governance organised by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and ActionAid.
“We have done a study on formulation of land and food security in the country and we are working with counties to control mushrooming of informal settlements,” he said.
FAO country representative Tobias Takavarasha said that if land owned by women was increased by one per cent, the country would record a major improvement in food production.
“We are challenging the government and other partners to address this issue as women are highly regarded in terms of food production,” he said.
On the sub-division of land meant for food production, Takavarasha attributed this to the rise in rural-urban migration which had resulted in an increase in demand for houses.
“There is a need for concerned authorities to protect land meant for food production as failure to do this could lead to a shortage of food in the coming years,” he said.
Kitasi Wanga from ActionAid said that they were seeking more data on land ownership among women.
“In some counties like Taita Taveta the issue of women owning land mainly in settlement schemes is being addressed and we should address the distribution again,” he said.
