On 9th December 2022, Muhoroni residents benefited from KELIN’s communication education public awareness materials relating to women’s land and property rights and sexual reproductive health rights. The legal clinic and awareness day hosted by Tamu Law Courts was to mark climax of sixteen days of activism to end violence against girls and women and promote access to justice.
While giving keynote speech honourable P. K Rugut a Magistrate at the Tamu Court noted that “Women need to be aware of their rights and work towards being independent because when one is independent, they have bargaining power, and this reduces their vulnerability to Gender-Based Violence.”
It is a common place that women tend to cling to abusive unions because they lack their own property. Further, a correlation between GBV and land rights is evidenced where security of women is threatened, or actual violence mated on them in a bid to grab their land or disinherit them.
KELIN as a member of the court users committee and ardent advocate of human rights seized the opportunity to capacity enhance the beneficiaries on inheritance, land, extractives, sexual reproductive health right and common violations related to them and HIV & TB. The beneficiaries were issued with simplified booklets regarding registration of land, succession steps, will writing, women’s rights withing extractives, registration of marriages, and matrimonial property rights in a bid to create awareness and enable the beneficiaries to claim and protect their rights. The effort is to counteract marginalisation of women in relation to women’s land and property rights. When women claim their right to land and property, their lives and those of their family improves. Further, a community that is cognisant of the human centered approaches and apply them in their day-to-day life, gender based violence is averted.
To contribute to the discussions on this forum, follow KELIN on our social media platforms using the hashtag: #EquitableLandRights #WomenLandRights#16daysofActivism
Twitter: @KELINKenya
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kelinkenya
For more information, please contact.
Kenneth Otieno Akach
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
