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Behind the Scenes of "How Women Fight for Inheritance Rights in Kenya"
Since I was a child, I heard from my mother that we have agricultural land in Upper Egypt, which my mother inherited on both sides from her mother and father. I heard many stories, and as I grew older, I saw my mother’s attempts to dispute the family’s men over her rights, to no avail.
In one of the attempts, one of the family’s men put his weapon in my mom’s face. And for years, they found workarounds to forbid her from having her inheritance. My mother was asking men for her rights and the right of my grandmother to my mother in other agricultural lands that she did not get until she died, so her daughter – my mother – completed her journey in claiming the right. Even sometimes from her own brother. I could not tell the personal story, and I have watched many stories in my journalistic life on the same subject in Egypt.
When the author Jackson Ambula sent us the story idea, I was excited, because I knew little about how women are treated in Kenya in the matter of inheritance, especially in remote areas.
Sometimes the media, amid the great momentum of major events and the globalization of social media, which has become filled with inspiring and sad stories, forget that there are things that are repeated every day, such as inheritance, and that directly and abundantly affect the economic empowerment of women and the progress of peoples.
That is why we had to talk to the women who have suffered from this constant injustice, and see how the government and society are trying to overcome these obstacles.
This issue resonates with many women around the world, as 40% of Economies Limit Women’s Property Rights. According to the World Bank Group’s recently released report Women, Business and the Law 2020, two-fifths of countries worldwide limit women’s property rights. In 19 countries, women do not have equal ownership rights to immovable property. In 44 countries, male and female surviving spouses do not have equal rights to inherit assets.
The world data bank blog mentioned reforms related to property ownership and inheritance are the most difficult to pass, especially in countries where social norms dictate how land is gained and passed to future generations.
We chose to tell this story because it is about women in rural areas in Kenya and because inheritance is a blind spot in the economic empowerment of women in the whole world. It is our target in Unbias the News, to tell underreported stories and shed light on inequalities with hope for change.
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The underprivileged are often more exposed to pollution either from the lack of policies that protect them from it or from actions by government authorities which increase their vulnerability to it.
“I not only understand the circumstances that lead people to move abroad, but I also share their experiences, know the problems and processes they went through to come here, and because immigrants tend to build networks to provide help for each other,” Landivar notes.
“we have to constantly demonstrate our value and are questioned for pointing out the attacks and misogynistic coverage that has been carried out for decades without any of these renowned men of power mentioning it.”
“I tried to bargain with the policemen, but they demanded N500,000 ($770) or nothing. Next, they drove me to my bank branch beside Sheraton Hotel and told me to go and withdraw the money for them.”
My oxygen is dipping. I have blacked out. When I wake up, the nurse is telling me I should lose weight. Am I going to survive? I must be. No one tells a dying person to lose weight, do they?
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