WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Women and children will benefit equitably from family and national resources should the proposed constitution sail through, law experts have said.

Speaking at a land reform forum Friday, law experts said the draft law guarantee equitable access to matrimonial property and public land, and provides for the enactment of laws to govern the same.

Prof Patricia Kameri Mbote, a law lecturer at Strathmore University, said the draft eliminates gender discrimination on inheritance and recognises inheritance rights of wives and children, including those born out of marriage.

“The new constitution has catered for the father, mother and children,” she said.

They supported the draft, arguing that it was not only gender-sensitive, but also contained land reforms that would protect the public from land grabbers and return stolen public land.

And according to Ms Judith Okal, a programme officer at Federation of Women Lawyers-Kenya, for a long time the law had failed to recognise that women contributed to the acquisition of matrimonial property, either directly or indirectly.

As such, she added, many women were denied their rightful share of such property during divorce, and their share was determined based on the mercy of the courts.

She accused those opposing the draft constitution of spreading lies that the new constitution would allow married women to return to their birth places and disinherit men.

She said the matter was already addressed by the existing succession law, which guaranteed all children the right to inheritance.

They hailed the chapter on land as having incorporated major provisions from the National Land Policy passed last year, adding that land issues was at the core of all past ethnic conflicts.

Kenya Land Alliance coordinator Odenda Lumumba dismissed those against the section of the draft touching on land.

“The very pillars of seeking change are land issues and taking power to the people,” he said.