Married women have won a battle to inherit their father's land after the High Court declared it is unconstitutional to deny them a portion.
Justice Anthony Mrima ruled that traditional cultures, which make it taboo for married women to return to their homes to claim their father's property, is outdated and discriminates against women.
"I am in agreement that time has now come for those discriminative cultural practices against women be buried in history. This is in line with Article 27 of the Constitution that prohibits discrimination of persons on the basis of their sex, marital status or social status," ruled Mrima.
He declared that the decision by a daughter or a son to get married should not have a bearing at all to whether or not such son or daughter is entitled to inherit property of their deceased parents.
According to the judge, the ghost of retrogressive customary practices that discriminate against married women when it comes to inheritance of their parent's properties has continued to thrive despite of numerous court decisions that declared such customs backward and repugnant.
"The issue as to whether daughters of a deceased person, whether married or otherwise, are entitled to inheritance of the deceased estate is well settled. The law of succession does not discriminate female and male children, whether married or unmarried," ruled Mrima.
He further upheld a finding by the Court of Appeal that there is no justification to deny a married woman her father's land on assumption that married daughters should forego their father's inheritance because they will enjoy inheritance of their husband's side of the family.
Justice Mrima made the decision in a case where Joyce Kimomwor was fighting with her brothers who refused to give her a portion of their late father's 13-acre land in West Pokot County.
Ms Kimomwor sued her elder brother James Musa Tapoyo for distributing their late father Tapoya Amuruk Silaure's land to the other four siblings and their mother while leaving her out.
According Kimomwor, the brother had allocated himself 3-acres, his two other brothers Geoffrey Arimuk and John Pkiyach got 3-acre each, their unmarried sister Stella Chebet got 2-acres and the rest left to their mother Chebii Cheposingemi.
The brother in his defence stated that he divided the portion in accordance with his late father's wishes that the married daughter should not come back to claim a piece of his land.
Justice Mrima however ruled that being a daughter of the deceased, Kimomwor ought to be equally treated as the rest of the children even if she is married.
