Sociocultural and Economic Barriers to Land Ownership Among Widows in Rural Western Kenya

Background Widows still face immense barriers in owning land and get inferior reliable rights to land than males across most Kenyan communities. The objective of this study, therefore, was to establish the sociocultural and economic factors that continue to bar widows from owning land in rural Western Kenya. Methods A cross-sectional study employing qualitative data collection methods was adopted in this study where six widows participated in Case Narratives (CN), and two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) each with five widows and one FGD comprising eight men were conducted. In addition, six widows were identified from the FGD participants for in-depth interviews (IDIs) and 10 key informant interviews with stakeholders were carried out. Data from the qualitative interviews were transcribed for coding and analysis. The thematic content analysis method was used to identify themes related to sociocultural and economic factors hindering women from land ownership. Results Economic marginalisation, traditional land ownership structures, and practices such as the skewed land inheritance that disfavour women due to the deep-rooted patriarchy, low level of education and lack of awareness of existing land laws were found to be the major hindrances to land ownership by widows. In addition, the tedious process of accessing land documents and widow inheritance is also to blame. Conclusion The study concludes that the existence of a legal regime that accords women and widows the right to own land may not be sufficient in realising the intended gains for women if it is not backed up with an effective implementation and awareness creation on the laws as well as economic empowerment of the widows through targeted social protection schemes.