Kenya: Rural women struggle to secure land rights

Tina Anyango (not her real name) aged 28 is a widow living in Kuoyo Kaila, East seme Ward in Kisumu County. She is living with HIV which robbed her off the man she had lived with and loved for the past eight years. Her husband’s death left her solely responsible for their two children. To meet their needs, she depended on a one-acre piece of land she and her husband used to do farming together.

Months after her husband’s funeral, trouble started. Her in-laws accused her of bringing the malady into the family and was responsible for her husband’s death. They wanted her out of the piece of land. Her in-laws sold her husband’s land without her knowledge. She only realized this when the buyer came to evict her and her children from the piece of land.