PROJECT MU EFFECT OF LAND TENURE REFORM ON WOMEN'S ACCESS TO AND CONTROL OF LAND FOR FOOD PRODUCTION: A CASE STUDY IN MUMBUNI LOCATION MACHAKOS DISTRICT - KENYA IDRC REPORT - 1993 by: Elizabeth Akinyi Nzioki Research Associ?te Public Law Institute P.O. Box 25011 NAIROBI Kenya 1DRC - Lib. I p-f) e.:,c) 0 PROJECT TITLE EFFECT OF LAND TENURE REFORM ON WOMEN'S ACCESS TO AND CONTROL OF LAND FOR FOOD PRODUCTION: A CASE STUDY IN MUMBUNI LOCATION MACHAKOS DISTRICT - KENYA IDRC REPORT - 1993 by: Elizabeth Alcinyi Nziolci Research Associate Public Law Institute P.O. Box 25011 NAIROBI Kenya i - CONTENTS - Page RECOMMENDATIONS 1 THE GOVERNMENT 1 THE LAND REFORM COMMISSION 2 TO WOMEN 4 CHAPTER ONE 5 INTRODUCTION 5 THE PROBLEM 7 PROJECT OBJECTIVES 7 JUSTIFICATION FOR THE PROJECT RESEARCH 8 LITERATURE REVIEW 9 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 14 HYPOTHESIS 18 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 18 STUDY AREA 19 SAMPLING 20 DATA ANALYSIS 20 CHAPTER TWO 21 INTRODUCTIONS 21 PRE-COLONIAL TENURE STRUCTURE AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN LAND 21 THE COLONIAL PERIOD 26 THE LAND TENURE REFORM 30 POST-COLONIAL PERIOD 34 LEGISLATION ON LAND TENURE REFORM IN KENYA 34 CHAPTER THREE 40 DOES LAND REFORM ENHANCE WOMEN'S ACQUISITION OF LAND9 42 WOMEN'S RIGHTS TO LAND 47 THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS 50 CHAPTER FOUR 54 THE IMPACT OF LAND TENURE REFORM ON WOMEN AND FOOD PRODUCTION 54 BENEFICIARIES FROM LAND OUTPUT 60 THE IMPACT OF COMMERCIALIZATION OF AGRICULTURE ON FOOD AND LAND TENURE 71 CHAPTER FIVE 79 CASE STUDIES 79 CASES OF LANDLESS WOMEN 79 CASES OF WOMEN WHO OWN LAND 108 RE-EXAMINING THE WOMEN'S PERSPECTIVES 116 REFERENCES 123 ANNEX LIST OF TABLES: Table 1. Adjudicated Table 2. Registered Lands (Titled) Table 3. Land Ownership by Women Table 4. Percentage Distribution of Land by Type of Land Ownership Table 5. Factors Hindering Women from Owning Land Table 6. In Whose Name is Land Registered? Table 7. Who Allocates Land to the Family Table 8. Women's Rights to Lease, Mortgage and Sell Land Table 9. Reasons Given for no Access to Credit Table 10. Farm Labour Activities on Food Crops During Long Rainy Season (1989) Table 11. Percentage Distribution of Husband and Wife's Labour Activities on Food Production Table 12. Farm Labour Activities on Cash Crop (Coffee) During Long Rainy Season (1989) Table 13. Percentage Distribution of Husband and Wife Labour Activities on Coffee Production Table 14. Decisions on Use of Food Table 15. Who Gets Pay for Coffee Table 16. Distribution on Decision MaIcing on use of Money from Coffee Table 17. Women with Food Farms Table 18. Access to Land for Food Table 19. Acres of Land for Food Farms Table 20. Parcels of Land for Food Table 21. Distances of Food Farms from Homes LIST OF FIGURES: Adjudicated Registered Lands (Titled) Land Ownership by Women Percentage Distribution of Land by Type of Land Ownership Factors Hindering Women from Owning Land In Whose Name is Land Registered? Who Allocates Land to the Family Women's Rights to Lease, Mortgage and Sell Land Reasons Given for no Access to Credit FIG11. Percentage Distribution of Husband and Wife's Labour Activities on Food Production Percentage Distribution of Husband and Wife Labour Activities on Coffee Production Decisions on Use of Food Who Gets Pay for Coffee Distribution on Decision Maicing on use of Money from Coffee Women with Food Farms Access to Land for Food Acres of Land for Food Farms Parcels of Land for Food Distances of Food Farms from Homes ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My special thanks go to the women who participated in this study by providing their valuable time to give information, which is in this report. We hope that this was not a futile exercise and that our recommendations will be taken up by the right people, who will change the plight of the rural women given their land rights. I am grateful to the international Development Research Centre (IDRC) and especially Eva M. Rathgeber who provided me with funds that enabled me to undertake this study. I gratefully acknowledge the Public Law Institute and the Director Dr Okii-Ooko Ombaka, who accepted me as a Research Associate at the Institute and provided me with an environment from which I could conduct the study. I owe a debt of gratitude to my main supervisor Dr Jane Pappart whose comments and suggestions was of great help to me in the study. I further acknowledge Professor H. W. O. Okoth-Ogendo, Professor Kivutha Kibwana and S.C. Wanj ala, with whom I constantly discussed my work and who gave me the direction I needed for this study. I am especially indebted to the people who assisted me during field research: Anne Kyalo, Koki Mutisya, Japheth Ngoya, and Christopher Buluma. It is their timeless work that made this study a success. I would like to thank Mary Odera and Millicent Apondi for having tirelessly typed this work and made the report presentable. The editorial work and the final touches of this report has been provided by Dorothy Munyakho. To her I am grateful. To Nick Nzioki, Emmanuel Nzioki and Linda Mbatha - I thank you very much for the support, love and encouragement that you provided during this study. RECO1VIIVIENDATIONS The objectives of any agrarian reform is to promote equity, create employment, raise productivity and increase incomes of the poor. These objectives ought to apply to women as well as men. Land tenure reform should favour not only the masses of rural populations but women in particular who represent well over half the agricultural labour force with an increasing number becoming de-jure and de-facto household heads, who continue to use land as their primary source of existence. It is therefore critically important to act upon women's rights regarding land not only for advancement towards the liberation of women but in order to generate many benefits that these changes will bring about, not the least of which is increased potential of women in food production, which will benefit the whole country irrespective of gender. The problem therefore lies with the whole society and not only women. The following recommendations for action are directed at different levels. The Government If the government is genuinely concerned about the impact of development on women, then it should have the political will and conunitment to translate the following into effective action: - Create a policy environment which effectively empowers women through legal means and provides security of expectations for women of all ages, statuses and which will support their rights in land as the primary resource for food production. To enhance effort to involve women as owners and managers of resources and not simply as participants in development projets. To pay more attention and to act upon the differential impact of agricultural policy on men and women even where policies are framed in gender neutral terms. Lack of inclusion of women as beneficiaries of land tenure reform can no longer be justified on the basis of respect for tradition as the whole system 1 changes land use and introduces market oriented production relations that definitely alter traditions. To immediately stop treating the household as a collective unit represented by one individual. The gender, nature of socio-economic unit, decision-making and distribution of resources within the household must be reflected in policy in order to addresses different needs of women. The National land development policies should fan into two categories - policies designed to increase economic growth and efficiency and policies designed to increase equity. To advance policies that make available to women, regardless of marital status, capital (in the form of loans not requiring land as collateral) for the purchase of land. To appoint gender balanced land board conunittees from the grassroots to the national levels to ensure that women's concerns are taken care of in the whole process. In addition, the government should create an institutional channel through which women can voice their complaints and concerns. This department should be placed at the office of the President not only to ensure that women's voices reach the right ears, but that the obstacles they may come across are overcome. To immediately appoint a sub-committee (composed of women and men) within the Land Reform Commission to advise the govermnent on how to incorporate women's equal rights in land. The Land Reform Commission The Land Reform Commission should ensure that it recommends to the government the following: - That it is important for women to have rights to property and to own land in their own names. 2 In areas of customary bilateral inheritance, joint husband-wife ownership or life long tenancy is the most natural framework of land reform and will promote equity and efficiency. To put into practice laws that guarantee daughters' rights to inherit land. Legislation to ensure that widows who currently have no legal protection, receive the right to inherit their husbands' property. To achieve equality in the reform, women should be legally assured of access to a livelihood from land in the event of widowhood or divorce as are men. Women need legal powers to have access to credit, new crop technologies and to prevent the alienation of income from household consumption needs, or wrongful sale of land. Another option for land tenure reform is to give women reserve powers: one, that no lease or sale of land is legally valid without the wife's signature, and the other that in the event of divorce or widowhood, the wife obtains lifelong usufruct rights over part of the land. To appoint a gender-sensitive sub-committee of Land Reform Commission composed of equal numbers of women and men who will have specific duties of focusing on women's concerns on land reform.