By Deborah Nyokabi (https://apo-opa.co/3VGBlWY), Associate Manager, Economic Justice and Family Law, Equality Now (www.EqualityNow.org).For 42 years, Kenya has committed to ensuring women’s equality in marriage and family life. In 1984, the country ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and Article 2(6) of the Constitution (https://apo-opa.co/4s1SBBL) makes the treaty part of Kenyan law. Yet in reality, this promise remains unrealised. Women in Kenya can still lose their homes when their husbands die, struggle to claim property they helped build, and face barriers to leaving marriages marked by violence.Kenya’s record on women’s rights is currently under scrutiny as the CEDAW Committee reviews the country’s implementation of the Convention during the Committee’s 93rd session (https://apo-opa.co/4rZQHBI) at the United Nations in Geneva.The Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law (https://apo-opa.co/4rZQIpg), Equality Now (https://apo-opa.co/4rZQIFM) and Kenyan partners, including Come Together Widows and Orphans Organization (CTWOO), (https://apo-opa.co/4ySklM8) have submitted a shadow report (https://apo-opa.co/4dDNBNT) providing a civil society account of what happens on the ground in Kenya in relation to Article 16 of the CEDAW Convention.What CEDAW Article 16 means for women in KenyaArticle 16 of CEDAW (https://apo-opa.co/4yX8uMs) protects equality inside the family. This includes equal rights when spouses marry, during marriage and when it ends, with equal say over parenting, property and decisions about children. It protects the right to belong in a family, to be safe in it and to prosper in it, from marriage through widowhood. The Committee’s guidance on violence against women (https://apo-opa.co/3TYw3FE) extends that protection to safety at home.That commitment is tested at every stage of family life. When a couple registers a marriage, when unpaid care counts towards family wealth, when a woman seeks a divorce, when a widow tries to keep her home and when a woman needs protection from violence. These are not separate failures but different ways in which equality can exist on paper and be denied in practice.Kenya has made real progress. Article 27 of the Constitution guarantees equality, and Article 45(3) (https://apo-opa.co/4s1SBBL) applies that guarantee to spouses at every stage of marriage. The Marriage Act of 2014 (https://apo-opa.co/4e3spRC) brought many marriage laws into one statute, and the Matrimonial Property Act of 2013 (https://apo-opa.co/4dCyi8e) recognised non-financial contribution to family wealth, reforms that the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya and other women’s organisations helped advance (https://apo-opa.co/4dCn181) through strategic litigation, legislative proposals and community education.Marriage registration and women’s property rights in KenyaEquality in family life starts with being able to prove a marriage exists. The Marriage Act requires registration, yet it costs Kenya shillings 3,900 (https://apo-opa.co/4hWIeKW), and both spouses must appear before the registrar. Only 19.3 per cent of married women aged 15 to 49 (https://apo-opa.co/4hY0pjF) had registered their marriage in the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, while the shadow report finds no fee waiver for poor households and no county registration drives to help make it easier for couples to register their marriages locally.For a family living on the World Bank’s international poverty line of US$3 a day (https://apo-opa.co/4jQOfvh), the fee equals ten days of income. Many families pass land down the husband’s line, so a wife who cannot prove her marriage can struggle to claim the family home and land after a divorce or a death, and courts have been inconsistent about the consequences of non-registration (https://apo-opa.co/4rYjk28). Free registration for poor households and mobile registration teams in every county would remove the barrier.Kenya recognises unpaid contribution in property division, but no formula says how to value it, and in 2023 the Supreme Court held (https://apo-opa.co/3VMs3bM) that Article 45(3) does not give spouses an automatic half share. Women must still establish their contribution to matrimonial property over the years, including non-monetary contributions such as childcare and housework. A presumption of equal sharing, supported by judicial guidelines on valuing unpaid work, would help turn the constitutional promise of equal rights into equal outcomes.Divorce, access to justice and women’s safetyThe question is not only whether Kenya has laws protecting women’s rights, but whether women can use them. Fees, distance from courts and lengthy proceedings stand between many women and justice, and Kenya’s divorce law is largely fault-based (https://apo-opa.co/4dvd0cI), so a petitioner must prove a ground such as adultery, cruelty or desertion.In 2022, the Court of Appeal ruled (https://apo-opa.co/4rZQL4q) that the three-y
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