A widow, Rose, in Siaya County has reclaimed her matrimonial home after a court sitting in Siaya cancelled land titles obtained fraudulently by her brothers-in-law on the 15th day of May 2024.
The widow who was on the verge of becoming destitute had presented the case to KELIN in February 2023, during one of the legal aid and awareness sessions organized by KELIN in Siaya. The legal aid sessions are intended to create awareness in relation to the rights of women to access and own land and dismantling discriminatory practices against women. The widow’s brothers-in-law had claimed that upon the demise of their brother, the deceased’s interest in land automatically passed to them based on joint tenancy. The defense of joint tenancy advances the argument that the interest of the deceased is automatically passed to the surviving party jointly registered. However, the court held that this was not a joint tenancy but that parties(brothers) were tenants in common, and the deceased interest in the land therefore formed part of his estate and passes to his heirs, in this instance, his spouse.
The court decision comes only a day after a court in Ndhiwa also held that widows are entitled to inherit their late husband’s land. Cases of widow disinheritance are still rampant in Kenya, especially committed by close relatives of the widow’s late husband who should be their anchor and protectors. KELIN welcomes the positive judicial pronouncements and revamps its interventions to promote as well as protect women’s land and property rights in Kenya. Our mission remains undischarged until equitable enjoyment of land and property rights become the lived reality of the populations in Kenya and beyond.
Following the favorable judgment, KELIN will facilitate the succession process for Rose to secure documentation to her late husband’s land.
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For more information, please contact.
Kenneth Otieno A
Program Officer, Women Land & Property Rights
Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV & AIDS (KELIN)
Nyalenda Railways Estate, Block 9/220
Off Nairobi Road, Opposite YMCA
P.O. Box 7708| 40100 Kisumu – Kenya
Email: kotieno@kelinkenya.org
