HerDithy: Land, women and governance #1

 Welcome, this is HerDithy.

Owning land in Kenya is a big deal, ask our folks. There are those who utilize the land by building, farming, and others by selling. Land is largely commercialized due to its appreciating value. Now, what makes land attractive? Geographically, land equals to natural features (trees, rivers, hills), the type of soil, and likely, where your ancestors decided to settle down.

How does land relate to the distribution of food, women and governance?

When food is on a plate, it has been handled by several people and travelled hundreds of miles to be a final product of consumable nourishment. To facilitate the distribution of food from the far west to Nairobi, for example, proper transport channels are required to ferry agricultural produce from one place to another. The availability of roads, railway lines, pipelines, air and water cargo empower the economy as it reflects the availability of production and capacity of thorough structures.

Different regions have different produce. This is attributed to what nature can manage through eco systems and favorable climatic conditions. Fish, barley, corn, miraa, coconuts, camel milk are just a few examples to show how vast and diverse the food market and consumption is in the country. With rural- urban migration, societies have been assimilated to co- exist with the diverse cultures and preferences of people all over the country. We have amazing Swahili dishes from the Coast doing business in Nairobi, Indian and Japanese cuisines just to include the international scope of diplomatic ties and agriculture.

Seeing this, land is an important resource for Kenya`s population that largely depends on agriculture. The acquisition of land by women in this country has been a struggle for many, mostly due to customs and traditions. Women perform 66% of the world`s work, produce 50% of the world`s food but only earn 10% of the world`s income and own 1% of the world`s property. Gender inequality has discouraged independent income generation through diversification of livelihoods.

The Kenyan constitution states that all women have equal rights to own property, but land is most often customarily passed down from fathers to their sons, making it hard for women to own land. Thanks to advocacy groups and more participation from women in government, that narrative is slowly changing to include women on all societal spheres.  

Agriculture is a money-making business, and as a young person, one lies on either the production or consumption scale. Value addition is where the magic is, but it`s one of the most unexploited fields relating to agriculture based on the things we import that we could locally produce instead. There are permits, land rates, rules and regulations, that need to be paid to the government so that one can farm, produce and sell agricultural produce. Together with money topics, these are not adequately taught in schools. The education system must find a way to integrate teaching such things in institutions of learning to better equip the generations to come.

With the three fundamental pillars of basic needs, food and shelter are core to maintain a society at its best. The organization of society through governments is to ensure that the population is adequately fed, clothed and settled in conducive areas fit for human beings. But with the wide gap between the rich and the poor, all these factors have been compromised to certain degrees. Just recently, hunger and famine were declared a national emergency. Some counties have a surplus of food while others have barely anything. This reflects an imbalance of mercantilism and devolution that needs to be addressed with urgency.

We are a product of the distribution of resources since independence. Having visionary leaders who steer the country towards prosperity will benefit the most important people, its citizens, and better position the country on the global scale. May we demand better from those we put in power; people who will be able to facilitate equal opportunities for businesses, streamline devolution and support young people in creating means of employment for themselves.


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