Property Injustice and Overcoming Gender-Based Violence for HIV Positive Women in Kenya

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Abstract

While strong laws on gender equality exist to protect women’s property in Kenya, such laws clash with patriarchal ideas about gender roles within certain Kenyan communities. Financial limitations hinder Kenyan women's access to land ownership. Cultural norms further disadvantage women economically, specifically those with HIV/AIDS or widowed. Though Kenyan women acquire land, securing official titles remains challenging.

This study highlights many structural and cultural barriers as to why women living in Kenya lack title deeds through interviews with 45 women participating in an HIV program. Findings reveal that even when laws may be equitable, access to a criminal justice system is often not possible when patriarchal belief systems shape social relations. None of the interviewed women held inherited or jointly owned title deeds due to challenges beyond the issue of land itself. For example, women experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, or violence against their children and thus, had to prioritize their safety or their children’s safety, over land. The criminal justice system did not have mechanisms to protect them from gender-based violence in ways that allowed them to be safe enough to fight for access to their land rights. This research concludes with policy recommendations for property justice in Kenya.

Author

• Ashley R. Randolph, University of California, Sacramento