"If it had become time for us to die, that was the time and we were waiting for our deaths." The Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN) has trained almost 40 elders in western Kenya, who have resolved community disputes since pre-colonial times, to mediate in widows' inheritance disputes. The initiative has resettled almost 400 widows on their late husbands' land since 2009. Rather than exacerbating family tensions through the courts, which are often expensive and slow, campaigners are working with traditional elders to protect widows. Kenyan law grants widows the right to live on their late husbands' property until they die, but poor women are often evicted by land-hungry relatives, who use culture to justify their actions.

Source: Standard Digital June 23, 2016 00:00 UTC