BLOG: How HIV Worsens the Situation of Widows

It is a reality in Kenya that women have suffered land injustices over the years and its worse when they are widows. The problem makes it even tougher with the increase in AIDS related deaths.

This phenomenon lays bare the HIV related human rights violations that widows and their children have to endure in their daily lives.

Moriwo, a daughter of a widow narrates her story, “Our younger uncle kept beating my mother and we have slept in the bushes many times as he threatened to cut us with a machete. One day we finally left and we were hosted by a neighbour who is also a widow. My mother always told us to live well with people who host us. I have always lived in fear as I don't know what will happen to us. Why did my father die?”

Traditionally, widow inheritance in certain societies was about ensuring the social-economic rights of a widow and her children. However, with increased materialization of this culture, it lost its cradle. It is largely taken for sexual benefits.

In the wake of HIV, the epidemic finds a deeper penetration and affects many more vulnerable women and children. “My brother in-law insisted that I should leave with two daughters and that he can marry them off but does not want to see us again; he then took over his brother's (my husband's) land”, avows Jane Okello, a widow.

Unfortunately in Kenya, formal legal structures do not offer the best remedy.

Catherine Mumma, the programme advisor at the Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS, affirms that power analysis with respect to the violation of women's rights and property inheritance must be looked into to change the situation.