Millicent Akinyi Malaki always dreamt of spending her sunset years tending to her grandchildren hearing their clatter and plays and aging with her husband in bliss.

But life has thrown her one too many lemons she has no idea how to dream again.

The 61-year-old does not know whether to fight her evictors, look for food or inspire her children to pursue tertiary education.

She has been hoping for the last ten years that life would go back to normal but vagaries of separation and joblessness have taken their toll.

The mother of four separated with her husband in 2010 and she was moved from Bungoma to Nakuru after the man took in another wife.

Whereas that did not put her down, she is at her wits end after she received a notice to vacate her house in Kaptembwa Estate in Nakuru West Sub-County. 

The notice is from a man who purports to have bought the property from her husband.

“I don’t have my name on any of the property we acquired though I also chipped in financially to pay for it.

According to him, women cannot own anything in their name. My husband never allowed me to have my name on the title. He would say: ‘I’m the man of the house, what I have you have.

If I own it, you own it.’ But now who will support me to get my share? I’m on my own,” she pleads.

Malaki says they got married sometime in 1991 and separated in 2010.

“When you work on a marriage and lose it all, it is devastating. What is more painful is when the man you know as the father of your children moves to dispossess you of the only shelter you have.

I do not have money. Where do I start and how do I start?”, she laments.

Left homeless

She dreads the prospect of being left homeless after the purported buyer visited the premises armed with an eviction order.

Her 19-year-old daughter Mercy Malaki wrote her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations in 2016 and attained a mean grade of C. She aspires to be a nurse or an International Relations expert.

However, hope is fast ebbing for Mercy after what she claims to be her father’s refusal to pay her fees, leaving her with no option but to resort to menial jobs to eke out a living.

“Many are the nights we go to bed hungry. My future and that of my siblings is bleak after our father abdicated his parental duties.

To cap his mistreatment, he has roped a stranger in his schemes who now claims to be the owner of the only home we know,” laments the teenage girl.

A neighbour, Daisy Moraa says following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic Malaki’s situation had worsened as she could no longer get the menial jobs that she used to rely on to fend for her family.

Moraa says Malaki has been unsuccessfully struggling to get relief food and vouchers distributed by the County government.

“She used to wash clothes in her neighbourhood for a living, but people have now become cautious and no longer allow anyone into their houses. She has nowhere to run to,” offers Moraa.

Activists

However, all is not lost as a group of activist have promised to take up the case and pursue legal redress.

Miriam Bulemi, a coordinator from Young African Women Initiative, says her organisation would assist Malaki get legal advice and protection against the planned eviction.

She states that Article 53(1)(e) of the Constitution clearly provides that “Every child has the right to parental care and protection, which includes equal responsibility of the mother and father to provide for the child, whether they are married to each other or not”.

 Bulemi says Malaki can demonstrate before a court of law that she also made non-financial contributions in acquisition of the properties.

She further states that Article 45(3) of the Constitution is clear that spouses have equal rights at the time of marriage, during and upon dissolution of marriage.

“The law defines non-financial contributions to “include domestic work and management of matrimonial home; child care; companionship; management of family business or property; and farm work.

Ensuring justice and rights for the woman doesn’t have to be so difficult,” she says. – KNA