Siaya widows cry out for land so cruelly taken

By John Oywa

Her voice quivered with emotion as she struggled to tell the story of a land dispute that has haunted her for nearly a decade. Waving a sheaf of papers to prove her case, 53- years old Lucia Akoth Oluoch paused to survey the packed hall, her face reduced to a mask of desperation.

"I want justice. I have been reduced to a squatter on my own land, just because I am a widow," she said as tears began to roll down her cheeks.

On the front row at the St Julian’s Academy hall in Siaya County sat another widow, Turfena Abongo. Resting her chin on a walking stick, the 80 year old grandmother was engrossed in deep thoughts. She had travelled 50Km from Sakwa to share her story with other victims of land injustices in the area.

The three widows were among hundreds of Gem, Alego-Usonga, Bondo, Rarieda and Ugenya constituents who had gathered at the school to discuss injustices in land acquisition and management in Siaya County. They say the county, ironically home to Lands Minister James Orengo, has been invaded by land sharks targeting land owned by widows, orphans and the public.

"I came here because I was told Orengo was to come and help me get back my land. I am very disappointed that he did not come," says Turfena. She claims a senior civic leader at Bondo County Council forcefully took away her family land soon after her husband died.

She added: "Every time I try to file a case in court, he threatens me with death and no one is willing to help me as many people fear him because of his political connections."

But it was Lucia’s case that left the audience in shock. A few weeks after her husband’s death in 2003, a stranger stormed her home in the company of armed police officers and ordered her to leave as the land had allegedly changed hands.

"I thought it was a dream and tried to resist but the man went ahead to destroy my house and property as the police watched. I am now living as a squatter on someone else’s land with my six children," said Turfena.

LAND INJUSTICES

In 2009 she filed a case at a Siaya court (SYA 45/2009) but has since transferred the same to the High Court in Kisumu. She also later learnt that three different people were laying claim to her matrimonial land.

"They claim the land was sold to them by my late husband but this is not true. Why did they wait until after his death to claim the land if they were genuine?"

Emotions ran high after it emerged almost all those at the meeting called to discuss the current status of land administration, management and governance in Siaya County last week were victims of land injustices.

It also emerged that Siaya County was leading in land disputes in Nyanza. A big number of widows in and orphans have been robbed of their land and have no access to justice either due to intimidation, high cost of filing cases and ignorance.

A Kisumu lawyer, Mr Amos Oyuko who attended the meeting organised by Community Initiatives Action Group (CIAG-K), The Nyanza Youth Coalition (NYC) and Kenya Transition Initiative (KTI) said majority of land cases filed at the High Court in Kisumu were from Siaya County.

It is also estimated that nearly 90 per cent of assault and murder cases in Ukwala division in Ugenya constituency are land related.

"There has been a lot of land related violence in Siaya County. Most land owners have no title deeds and owners do not know their rights. Land grabbers have taken this advantage of this and are wrecking havoc," said Oyuko.

Speakers resolved to conduct a rally at a market next to the Minister’s home in Ugenya this Friday to try to goad him into action. "Mr Orengo is the Minister for Lands and he comes from this County. We petition him to help these victims of impunity," said Mr Crispin Owala of CIAG-Kenya.

He added: "We are using non-violent advocacy to push for land reforms." Neither Mr Orengo nor senior civil leaders invited for the meeting attended. Mr Orengo could not be reached for comment.

The meeting demanded investigations into how a Chairman of a County council, a Permanent Secretary and the family of an assistant Minister grabbed public plots in the County.

The coordinator of Nyanza Youth Coalition, Mr Joshua Nyamori told the meeting that these poor and vulnerable residents of Siaya County felt insecure over their land rights, a situation that discourages investment in food production and future investments.

TOO EXPENSIVE

Mr Owala said corruption and bureaucratic land administration in Bondo and Siaya towns made the services too expensive and inaccessible to the villagers.

"It is a common belief in the county that services at the Ministry of Lands offices in Siaya County is a preserve of the rich and the powerful," said Owalla.

He said the situation in Siaya County should be used as a case study in the implementation of the Land reforms which forms the Agenda four of the National Accord.

A governance expert, Mr Gideon Ochanda said all transactions on public land should be shelved until after the next elections to stop corrupt land transfers.

Culture to blame for suppressing women

Women still have a long way to go in land ownership even after the new constitution granted them equal rights with men.

Among many communities in Kenya, culture still bar women from inheriting family land and those defying these centuries old tradition have not only been assaulted but violently thrown out of their homes.

A few lucky ones have been forced to dispose of their matrimonial land at throw away prices by relatives or influential individuals.

A distinguishing case study is that of an octogenarian from South Ugenya Constituency who was recently paid a paltry Sh20,000 for a one-acre parcel of land for which she was asking Sh100,000.

Leonida Nyende Odenyo was reportedly conned by a young man who went ahead to transfer the land into his name after paying only Sh20,000, according to a para-legal officer handling the case, Mr George Ojalo.

"The young man came with Sh20,000 in one hundred shilling notes. Due to old age, the lady could not count the entire sum. She gave the young man the parcel number and the title deed. He took her to the Lands office to sign the transfer papers," Ojalo told The Standard.

Today, the woman has received an eviction notice and the buyer says he does not owe her any money.

TITLE DEEDS

This is just but one of the cases of gender inequality in land ownership in Siaya as documented by Community Initiative Action Group, the Nyanza Youth Coalition and the Kenya Transition Initiative.

An education scholar and women’s rights activist, Prof Phoebe Nyawalo says the government should form legal committees from the village level to help women enjoy their land rights as enshrined in the new constitution.

"The culture that dictates that only men should have their names in titles deeds is repugnant and should have died with the promulgation of the new constitution," says Prof Nyawalo.

She said women do about 80 per cent of agricultural work in rural Kenya yet they have had no absolute rights over the land they till and have no freedom to sell such land or even use them as mortgage.

ALLOCATING LAND

Prof Nyawalo hopes that the new Constitution would allow women to sit in influential land committees from the village to the national level.

A former Siaya District Lands registrar Mr Kwanya Adongo challenged parents in Nyanza to start allocating land equally to their daughters and allow them to build simba (boy’s hut) because the new Constitution was supreme to culture.