Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) an umbrella network of Civil Society Organizations and individuals across Kenya committed to effective advocacy for the reform of policies and laws governing land in Kenya have launched HAKI ARDHI APP – a women land rights reporting tool- in Nairobi as part of its International Women’s Day celebration.
The event held at Ufungamano House, attracted close to 200 women from across the country and various stakeholders, including government officials.It is our aim, to provide a free, secure and dependable reporting mechanism so that women can access the remedies that they so much need,” said Faith Alubbe, the CEO of Kenya Land Alliance.
The Haki Ardhi App was last year rolled out in Kakamega County and Taita Taveta County and has been very instrumental in documenting land rights injustices faced by women in these areas, including land succession problems, forced evictions, land grabbing, denial of access to their property among others.
Kenyans can access it through Toll-Free Text function (victims can send messages to 23583 to report their situation and access remedy) has been so effective that the courts, through the Chief Magistrate in Kakamega, are interested in the data to help accelerate the prosecution of some of the stalled land rights violation cases where women are victims.
During the ceremony, Kenya Land Alliance outlined its three-year plan for HAKI ARDHI APP, which includes the training of training of 20 paralegals in 30 counties, enhancement of its legal aid services to bring pro-bono legal assistance to members of the community who can not afford the services of advocates or lawyers and addressing some of the country’s land and natural resources policy deficits. The HAKI ARDHI APP is domiciled in several InfoHubs across Taita Taveta county and Kakamega County and is overseen by paralegals and legal assistants.
The HAKI ARDHI APP has been developed in partnership with the Rainforest Foundation UK (RF-UK) as the technical partner and TMG ThinkTank For Sustainability.The APP has so far registered 130 cases (both in Taita Taveta County and Kakamega County) out of which 6 have been successfully followed-up and solved.