Bridging Policy–Practice Gaps: Women’s Land Rights, Tenure Insecurity, and Sustainable Agricultural Land Management in Kenya
Karen Nyamoita Magara, Peter Gutwa Oino, Vivian Nyaata
School of Arts and Social Sciences
Kisii University
Email: nyamoita2016@gmail.com
Abstract: Despite the proliferation of gender-responsive land policies and constitutional guarantees of equality, women in Kenya continue to experience constrained and insecure access to agricultural land, undermining both social equity and sustainable land management outcomes. This study examines how leadership and governance dynamics shape the persistent policy–practice gap in women’s land rights and its implications for sustainable agricultural land management. Anchored in the Feminist Political Ecology framework and enriched by classical anthropological perspectives on kinship, lineage systems, and customary tenure, the study employs a systematic desk review of policy documents, institutional reports, and empirical literature. It interrogates how formal land governance structures intersect with socio-cultural institutions to shape women’s land access. The study advances scholarly debates by conceptualizing the policy–practice gap as a multi-level governance challenge emerging from the interaction between statutory, customary, and socio-cultural systems, where patriarchal authority, embedded in lineage-based organization, continues to mediate control over productive resources. Findings reveal that, despite progressive legal and policy reforms, implementation remains weak due to fragmented institutional leadership, limited accountability, bureaucratic inefficiencies in land administration, and low levels of legal literacy among women. The coexistence of plural legal systems further entrenches tenure insecurity and reproduces structural inequalities. The study argues for transformative land governance that integrates gender-responsive leadership, strengthens institutional accountability, harmonizes plural tenure systems, and enhances women’s participation in decision-making to support sustainable agriculture and rural development in Kenya.
