Kenyans who strongly embrace African culture will have a rough time in trying to comply with the High Court ruling in Nyeri, allowing a married woman to inherit property from her parents.
The verdict by Justice Lucy Waithaka came a shocker touching off a fierce conflict between customs and the law.
Traditionalists believe it infringes on the convention that a woman once married belongs to her husband, and cannot claim property from her parents. But gender activists say this belief treats women as ‘second-class beings’ who are easily disinherited even when unmarried.
Customary practices grant women only secondary rights to land and property through male relatives. That’s why, despite the fact that about 32 per cent of households in Kenya is headed by women, only 1 per cent hold land titles in their own names and only 5 per cent own land jointly with husbands or male family members.
Although the law giving women, married or not, equal rights to parents’ property have been in existence since 1981, the reality is that many women still have to fight for land rights.
The Act says that if a dependant is disfavoured by the deceased in disposition of his property, and a court finds that this affected the dependant, it may annul the disposition and order reasonable provisions be made to the dependant as it shall find necessary.
“In making provision for a dependant, the court shall have complete discretion to order a specific share of the estate to be given to the dependant, or to make such other provision for him by way of periodical payments or a lump sum, and to impose such conditions as it thinks fit,” the Act reads in part.
The dependants listed in the Act include a man’s wife or wives, or former wife or wives, and the children of the deceased, whether or not maintained by the deceased immediately prior to his death.