The Women Land and Property Rights program area focuses on advocating for the effective implementation of constitutional provisions to secure women's land and property rights.

Over the years, KLA has played a fundamental role in securing equitable land rights, and putting women at the center of land reform discourses in Kenya. Our key result areas continue to amplify women's voices to secure their rights to own, use, access, and control land.

Equitable Land Rights

Despite the constitution of Kenya providing for equitable access to land, security of land rights and elimination of gender discrimination in law, customs and practices related to property in land; women in Kenya are still disadvantaged on matters where land is concerned.

Women still do not have equal access to land and property as men. Often, women get displaced from matrimonial land or inherited land, they are most of the time rendered landless due to lack of proper documentation of their land (proof of ownership) and similarly, they are often affected by irregular land allocations engineered by second or third parties with the intention of grabbing their parcels of land.

For 10 years, Kenya Land Alliance has been at the forefront of land reform discourses with specific attention paid to the realization of women’s rights to land and property as enshrined in the Kenyan constitution. This has been done by influencing and catalyzing legislative and policy reforms over the years.

Women Land Rights Reporting and Monitoring Tool

Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) in partnership with TMG Think Tank for Sustainability and with support from the German Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development collected views from communities, CSOs, county, and state officers working in the land sector from Kakamega and Taita Taveta counties on challenges facing women as they advance their rights to land and property. The information collected helped in designing and developing an upcoming Women Land Rights Reporting and Monitoring tool.

KLA continues to leverage on strong memberships. We have continued to invigorate and support grassroots organizations by capacity building on emerging issues in the land sector to enhance their capacity to effectively respond to the ever-changing operational environments.

Under this premise, KLA in partnership with our member, Majira Yetu Trust, launched the “Stawisha Kina Mama” empowerment program which opens up opportunities for women facing or after evictions. The women will be able to engage with system changes around property rights, thus decreasing their vulnerability to poverty and risk of social and economic marginalization. They can also use their acquired knowledge to set up or strengthen their businesses.

Pursuing Identification Documents

KLA supports women in Taita Taveta County to realize access to land and livelihood through the issuance of documentation such as Identification Cards which are key documents in acquiring and possessing title deeds.

In this respect, we have held convenings with the affected women from the Taveta sub-county together with their local leaders and our partners in the area Sauti ya Wanawake (Coastal Chapter).

This contact setting meeting and subsequent meetings have helped KLA to identify at least 120 women affected and documented the progress and challenges faced in the process of acquiring these documents. The 120 women in Taveta are in the process of compiling their documents and progress so that KLA can look into instituting a Public Interest litigation matter.