| dc.description.abstract | This study set out to identify opportunities and challenges for women in the new statutory land
tenure systems. The study was conducted among rural women farmers in Katieno West Sublocation,
Kisumu County. The main objective of the study was to explore the opportunities for
women‟s access, use, control and ownership of land in the new dispensation and find out why
rural women are not exploiting these opportunities. Specifically, the study set out to: Identify the
opportunities for women in the new legislations; and determine the challenges facing the women
in exploiting these opportunities.
Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires, focused group discussions and key
informant interviews. Data from the semi-structured questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS
version 17.0 and the findings presented in tables of frequencies and percentages, and graphs,
while data from the focused group discussions and key informant interviews were analyzed
according to emerging themes. The SWOT analysis was the framework used to conceptualize the
study.
The study findings indicate that there are various opportunities for women in the new statutory
land tenure systems including ownership and inheritance. The findings also suggest that the
study subjects are aware of these opportunities but the opportunities are not being actualized on
the ground due to a variety of challenges, including: predominant use of cultural land tenure
systems in the rural areas; customs and traditional practices that are dominantly patriarchal and
largely discriminate against women; the lack of both an enabling environment and adequate
structures that facilitate the enforcement of these opportunities; and the existence of two parallel
tenure systems regulating land, statutory and customary. The constitution tries to address some
of these challenges by bridging the gap between the statutory and customary land tenure systems.
However, the process of dismantling these inappropriate structures will take time. Devolution as
well as intensive civic education and awareness creation among rural communities is bond to
address patriarchy which will in turn create an enabling environment for women to demand their
rights.
The study, therefore, recommends that activities including workshops and conferences be
organized to educate rural women and make them aware of the available avenues that they can
use to actualize their rights; encourage cultural leaders and elders to support women land rights;
and carry out further research on ways in which statutory and customary land tenure systems can
exist and work together for the benefit of the communities, more than just in the implementation
of the constitution. | en_US |
