Changing norms: More women go for home ownership, driving mortgage numbers

At just 25, Happiness Nakhuva is a proud owner of an eighth-acre piece of land on the outskirts of Kakamega County.

She recounts how she has been saving towards that goal for the past two years that she has been working, with a further ambition to buy another piece soon.

She dreams that one day she will develop the place to become her permanent home by the time she clocks 30.

Her motivation stems from the desire to challenge the societal expectation that women should get married and move into their husbands’ homes, even if the man doesn't own any property.

Nakhuva believes that society is gradually evolving from the outdated notion that it's taboo for women to own homes.

"I'm determined to take advantage of that," she told The Eastleigh Voice.

Her path reflects that of many other middle-aged women in the country, especially in marginalised communities, who are determined to break the societal norm.

Garnet Muhavi, 28, reiterates that society today has got women on the run to close the gender disparity across different dimensions, a notion she also says she will ride on to own something for herself.

"This is why I would not only want to own land from inheritance but also make sure I buy one. I believe women should own lands and homes they've worked for because it is an investment and anyone can invest regardless of their gender," Muhavi said.

Nevertheless, she aspires to get her own land by the time she clocks 35, an ambition she says makes the top of her to-do list.

The ambitions of the two women are similar to Karen's, a 28-year-old mother of one in her second year of a teaching career.

She says nothing stops her from dreaming towards buying land for herself despite her husband having one.

"Land or homeownership is part of investment and we can both have one. We could opt to lease one for income," Karen said.

The disclosures are reflective of the growing appetite among women in the country for loans towards home ownership.

Data by the homeownership loan provider, Kenya Mortgage Refinancing Company (KMRC), shows women are increasingly taking up loans for land and property ownership, pushing up its mortgage value and the numbers it has offered since its inception in 2018.

Out of the loans it has refinanced — a total of Sh12.2 billion — 47 per cent of them went to female beneficiaries, a figure the lender says is exceptional and paints an emerging trend of more women getting into land and home ownership.

"The real demographics of the figure are not yet available for disclosure, but the number tells the whole story," said Johnstone Oltetia, the CEO of KMRC.

He was speaking on Wednesday in Nairobi during a media roundtable on land ownership.

This growing appetite by women for home and land ownership could be pointing towards the realisation of the goal to promote land ownership among women in Kenya as enshrined in the Constitution.

This is in Articles 40 and 60 (f) which provide for the right of all Kenyans to hold and own property, and the elimination of gender discrimination in practices related to land and property in land, respectively.

Subsequently, the National Land Policy of 2009 aims to protect women's land rights by promoting their participation in land-related decisions.

In addition, Sessional Paper No. 2 (2019), themed National Policy on Gender and Development, calls for the integration of gender considerations and inclusion of women in decision-making related to land and property.

Despite these existing legal frameworks to promote property and land ownership among women in Kenya, a state-owned research body, the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra), says more than 70 per cent of women in Kenya do not own any kind of land on the back of societal norms.

The 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey report reveals that 75 and 93 per cent of women do not own agricultural and non-agricultural land, respectively, an increase from 2014 when only 61.3 per cent of women did not own any land in Kenya.

"Among the women who owned land in 2022, 62 and 44 per cent did not have a title deed on agricultural and non-agricultural land, respectively," the report says.

Further, data from the Kenya Land Alliance shows that only 10 per cent of the three million title deeds processed by the government between 2013 and 2017 were issued to women, a possible explanation of the widening gap of women who do not own land in Kenya between 2014 and 2022.

Kippra further reveals that Kenyan women from the past have faced significant bias in the ownership and control of land, owing to the deeply ingrained patriarchal system prevalent in many communities.

It however warns of the negative impact of this trend.

"Given that women make up about 51 per cent of Kenya's population, excluding them from land ownership impacts the country's economic performance," Kippra says.