Widows Rebecca Anyango, 70 years outdated, proper, and Marie Owino, 87 years outdated, a former instructor, left, stroll exterior Marie’s compound dwelling in Siaya, Kenya, Nov. 27, 2025. AP-Yonhap
SIAYA, Kenya — Rebecca Anyango stood exterior the home she has known as dwelling for 26 years, questioning how lengthy it should stay hers.
As a widow, she’s been threatened with eviction for years by her late husband’s household, who declare she has no inheritance rights. This 12 months they filed a lawsuit, and the 70-year-old Anyango has no authorized illustration.
She identified the place her husband is buried, just a few steps from the door.
“The place do I take the grave?” she requested softly.
Anyango is amongst hundreds of widows in western Kenya who face dropping every thing after their husbands die. They’re usually in rural areas and with little schooling, unaware of their rights.
Within the Luo, Luhya, and Kisii ethnic teams, widowhood can include sure cultural expectations that may be thought of unlawful. One is “sexual cleaning,” wherein a widow is made to have intercourse with one other man, usually a brother of her late husband, within the perception that the “darkish cloud” of widowhood will carry.
One other is “spouse inheritance,” wherein a widow is taken in as a spouse by her late husband’s brother.
Those that refuse, like Anyango and others who spoke with The Related Press, are sometimes remoted and stripped of their land, a violation of Kenya’s constitutional assure of the correct to land possession for all residents.
“If the lady will not be conscious of what protects her, then she will likely be disinherited,” stated Simiyu Waddimba, who teaches anthropology on the College of Nairobi and authored a paper on spouse inheritance.
However in November, the native meeting in Siaya County, the place Anyango lives, unanimously handed a Widows Safety Invoice. If signed by the governor, it should criminalize compelled disinheritance or compelled remarriage.
The laws was championed by county legislator Scholastica Madowo, herself a widow and one among 4 elected girls within the 42-member native meeting. She stated the “atrocities that the ladies undergo” impressed her to behave.
“These cultural practices are literally a violation of their rights except the lady does it willingly,” she stated.
A distant view of native housing at a tea plantation in Kericho, Kenya, Nov. 30, 2025. AP-Yonhap
Whereas Madowo wasn’t forcibly disinherited or remarried, she confronted opponents’ insinuations about her widowhood throughout her marketing campaign for workplace, together with allegations that she had killed her husband.
Her invoice would set up welfare committees to assist widows entry authorized help to problem disinheritance.
Anne Bonareri, a widow, seems to be at a portrait of her late husband at her dwelling in Kisii, Kenya, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. AP-Yonhap
In neighboring Kisii County, Anne Bonareri was stripped of her dwelling and her industrial property, which had been in her late husband’s title.
Inside hours of her husband’s demise in 1997, her in-laws additionally took his possessions, together with photographs and garments. Bonareri was left with three younger youngsters and one other on the way in which.
“They took every thing, and I used to be left with one photograph of the daddy,” the 60-year-old recalled, her voice catching.
The day after the burial, she stated, her husband’s elder brother got here to say her as a spouse. When she refused, armed males had been despatched to assault her.
Bonareri stated she later labored three jobs to purchase a small piece of land and construct a brand new home.
Her daughter, Emma Mong’ute, based the Amandla MEK Basis in 2019 to assist girls in such circumstances by providing authorized recommendation and connecting them to professional bono legal professionals. She stated they’ve had some success in serving to girls retain land.
Banned like her mom from their land, and unable to go to her father’s grave there, Mong’ute stated the disinheritance of widows creates a cycle of poverty for lots of of hundreds of youngsters in Kenya. She stated her group would take into account pushing for a invoice just like the one in Siaya County.
A girl walks with a sack of meals from the market in Siaya, Kenya, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025. AP-Yonhap
Some widows elsewhere in Africa face comparable pressures. In southern Africa, there’s pressure between normal and customary legislation, which dominates inheritance circumstances.
“Whereas the final legislation protects the inheritance rights of surviving spouses and youngsters, customary practices nonetheless permit totally different ethnic teams to manage estates in response to their traditions, usually to the detriment of widows,” stated Misheck Dube, a former affiliate professor on the College of Limpopo in South Africa who has researched widowhood.
Most widows are disinherited as a result of they do not perceive Kenya’s land succession legal guidelines, which acknowledge widows and youngsters because the true inheritors, stated Easter Okech with the Kenya Feminine Advisory Group in Kisumu County.
She now affords authorized coaching for girls to allow them to characterize themselves, and a few are doing so in ongoing circumstances. She additionally encourages folks to write down wills — many individuals in rural areas do not make one — and have a impartial executor.
Some widows in western Kenya have fought again on their very own.
Widow Marie Owino, 87 years outdated, a former instructor, holds a portrait of her late husband at her dwelling in Siaya, Kenya, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025. AP-Yonhap
Marie Owino, a 87-year-old former instructor, stated she knew her rights underneath the legislation. She stated her confidence and monetary independence meant her in-laws “did not dare” to disinherit her after her husband died 33 years in the past.
She nonetheless lives within the brick home she and her husband shared on their 100 acres, its manicured gardens an emblem of the boundaries she laid down way back.
“After you have established your self you could, then I’m telling you all these folks provides you with respect,” she stated.
Aerial view of the house of widow Marie Owino, 87, a former instructor, in Siaya, Kenya, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025. AP-Yonhap
