Source: https://www.impowr.org/content/current-legal-framework-marital-assets-and-property-kenya
Timestamp: 2018-07-15 23:09:26
Document Index: 234014649

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 2', 'Art. 2', 'art 2', 'art 68', 'art 59', 'art 59', 'Art. 2', 'art. 15', 'art. 3', 'Art. 14', 'art. 16', 'art 1', 'art 5', 'art 2', 'art 2', 'art 4', 'art 3', 'art 3', 'art 3', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 2']

Current Legal Framework: Marital assets and property in Kenya | impowr.org
Current Legal Framework: Marital assets and property in Kenya
Submitted by MWE Team on Tue, 2014-04-08 12:01
Revised by cheid on Tue, 2018-01-30 15:18
Kenya’s 2010 Constitution guarantees the equal protection of property rights for men and women. Ch 4. Part 2(40)(1) states that: “every person has the right, either individually or in association with others, to acquire and own property”.1 The Constitution also protects equality within a marriage stating that: “parties to a marriage are entitled to equal rights as at the time of the marriage, during the marriage and at the dissolution of the marriage”.2 The Constitution requires Parliament to enact legislation “to regulate the recognition and protection of matrimonial property and in particular the matrimonial home during and on the termination of marriage”.3
The Constitution of Kenya established the Kenya National Human Rights and Equality Commission.4 One of the functions of the Commission is “to promote gender equality and equity generally and to coordinate and facilitate gender mainstreaming in national development”.5
Ch 1. Article 2(5) of the Constitution of Kenya incorporates international law.6 Kenya has ratified the following international human rights conventions: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter). All of these conventions protect a women’s equal right to property.7 Article 15 of the CEDAW protects the equality of women and men before the law and specifies that “States Parties … shall give women equal rights to conclude contracts and to administer property”. The ICESCR, Article three, states that the Covenant undertakes “to ensure the equal rights of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights”. Article 14 of the African Charter expressly guarantees the “right to property”. Additionally, Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that “[m]arried women of full age without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.”8
Originally, the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882, protected a woman’s marital property interests. It provided that “[a] married woman shall … be capable of acquiring, holding, and disposing by will or otherwise, of any real or personal property as her separate property, in the same manner as if she were a feme sole, without the intervention of any trustee.”9 The Act was silent on how marital property was to be divided upon dissolution of a marriage and was overturned by the Matrimonial Property Act of 2013.10
The Matrimonial Property Act of 2013 was enacted to “provide for the rights and responsibilities of spouses in relation to matrimonial property”.11 The Act states that “[d]espite any other law, a married woman has the same right as a married man – (a) to acquire, administer, hold, control, use and dispose of property whether moveable or immovable; (b) to enter into a contract; and (c) to sue, and to be sued in her own name.”12
The Matrimonial Property Act also statutorily defines matrimonial and separate property and protects the right of each spouse to marital property.13 Separate property is the property of only one spouse, while matrimonial property is “(a) the matrimonial home or homes; (b) household goods and effects in the matrimonial home or homes; or (c) any other immovable and moveable property, jointly owned and acquired during the subsistence of the marriage.”14 Under the Act, “ownership of matrimonial property vests in the spouses according to the contribution of either spouse towards its acquisition, and shall be divided between the spouses if they divorce or their marriage is otherwise dissolved.”15
Accordingly the Matrimonial Property Act does not equally divide maritial property upon divorce. Each spouse receives their portion of the property in accordance with their “contribution” toward the property. The Act defines contribution as “monetary and non-monetary contribution[s] and includes – (a) domestic work and management of the matrimonial home; (b) child care; (c) companionship; (d) management of family business or property; and (e) farm work”.16
The Land Registration Act of 2012 also protects real property rights including the rights of spouses. It requires that private ownership of land be registered in Kenya and registration of land “vest[s] in that person the absolute ownership of that land together with all rights and privileges belonging or appurtenant thereto”.17 Section 93 of the Land Registration Act specifies that if one “spouse obtains land for the co-ownership and use of both spouses” there will be a presumption that the spouses hold the land as joint tenants.18 Further if the land is held only in the name of one spouse “but the other spouse or spouses contribute by their labour or other means to the productivity, upkeep and improvement of the land, that spouse or those spouses shall be deemed by virtue of that labour to have acquired an interest in that land”.19 Section 93(3) imputes a duty on any lender or purchaser of a property that is held in the name of a single spouse to inquire about the other spouse before encumbering or purchasing the property.20
The National Land Commission Act of 2012 provides “for the management and administration of land in accordance with the principles of land policy set out in Article 60 of the Constitution and the national land policy”.21 Ch.5. Article 1(60)(1) of the Constitution requires that land in Kenya be used and managed in a manner which eliminates “gender discrimination in law, customs and practices related to land and property in land”.22
Prior to the adoption of Kenya’s Constitution in 2010, case law held that at separation or divorce, property was to be distributed in proportion to a spouse’s monetary contribution to that property.23 This line of reasoning severely discriminated against women, who generally did not provide monetary contributions to the property, but provided farm labor and child care.
After the modern Constitution was adopted, case law on marital property and property rights upon the dissolution of marriage began to evolve. On May 10, 2013, Lady Justice Mary M. Gitumbi ruled in favor of a women’s equal right to maritial property. In that case the husband had made 100% of the monetary contributions to the family home and sought 100% ownership of that home, but the Judge ruled that “[t]he legal provisions in force now [under the new Constitution] require this court to apply the principles of equality instead. This Court is duty bound to share the Suit Property equally between the Plaintiff and the Defendant.”24
Statutory and case law are not the only sources of law with respect to women’s marital property interests. Kenya has a large and diverse array of ethnic groups, many of which follow their own customary law. According to the Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of States Parties to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, “[m]ost customary laws disadvantage women in respect of property rights and inheritance. Under the customary law of most ethnic groups in Kenya, a woman cannot inherit land, and must live on the land as a guest of male relatives by blood or marriage.”25
1. 2010 Constitution of Kenya Ch 4. Art. 2(40)(1).
2. Ibid. Ch 4. Part 2(45)(2), (3).
3. Ibid. Ch 5. Part 68(c)(iii). To date, Parliament has enacted the Land Registration Act of 2012, the National Land Commission Act of 2012, and the Matrimonial Property Act of 2013.
4. Ibid. Ch 4. Part 59(1).
5. Ibid. Ch 4. Part 59(2)(b).
6. Ibid. Ch1. Art. 2(5) (“The general rules of international law shall form part of the Law of Kenya.”)
7. See Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, GA res. 34/180, art. 15, 34 UN GAOR Supp. (No. 46) at 193, U.N. Doc. A/34/46, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, entered into force Sept. 3, 1981, ratified by Kenya Mar. 9, 1984, available at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm, ratification status available at http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&lang=en; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, GA res. 2200A (XXI), art. 3, 11 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 993 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force Jan. 3, 1976, ratified by Kenya May 1, 1972, available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx, ratification status available at http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no =IV-3&chapter=4&lang=en; African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Art. 14, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5 (1981), 1520 U.N.T.S. 217, entered into force Oct. 21, 1986, ratified by Kenya Jan. 23, 1992, available at http://www.achpr.org/instruments/achpr/, ratification status available at http://www.achpr.org/instruments /achpr/ratification/.
8. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. res. 217A (III), art. 16(1), U.N. Doc. A/810 at 71 (Dec. 10, 1948), ratified by Kenya July 31, 1990, available at http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml, ratification status available at http://kenyalaw.org/treaties/treaties/164/. Article 17 of the same provides that “Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.”
9. Married Women’s Property Act, 1882, Part 1(1).
10. Matrimonial Property Act, 2013, Part 5.19. Note that the laws of succession also directly impact marital property laws, but are not addressed in this section and left for discussion in the Inheritance section.
11. It should be noted that the Act may not apply to “A person who professes the Islamic faith” and any such person “may be governed by Islamic law in all matters relating to matrimonial property”. Matrimonial Property Act, 2013, Part 2.3
12. Ibid. Part 2.4.
13. Ibid. Part 4.13.
14. Ibid. Part 3.6(1).
15. Ibid. Part 3.7(1). The Act also protects the rights of women in polygamous marriages by equally dividing property acquired by the man and the first wife before any other wives; any property acquired after the man marries another wife is “regarded as owned by the man and the other wives taking into account any contributions made by the man and each of the wives”. Part 3.8(1).
16. Ibid. Part 1.2.
17. Land Registration Act, No. 3 of 2012, Part 2, 24(a).
18. Ibid. Part 4, 93(1).
19. Ibid. Part 4, 93(2).
20. Ibid. Part 4, 93(3).
21. National Land Commission Act, 2012, Part 1.3(a). One of the duties enumerated in the Act is “to initiate investigations, on its own initiative or on a complaint, into present or historical land injustices, and recommend appropriate redress”. Part 2.5(1)(e).
22. Constitution of Kenya Ch 4. Part 2(40)(1).
23. Echaria v. Eacharia, Court of Appeal, Nairobi, Civil Appeal No. 75 of 2001.
24. C.M.N. v. A.W.M., High Court at Nairobi, Environmental & Land Case No. 208 of 2012.
25. Republic of Kenya, Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Reports of States Parties to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (39th Sess., 2007), para. 10, U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/KEN/6 (Oct. 16, 2006), available at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/39sess.htm (under Kenya) [hereinafter Kenya’s Report to CEDAW Committee].