Forced to sell your daughter for 10 euros: the silent drama of widows in Kenya

Phaustine Nafula, a 64-year-old woman, lost her husband in 2007 during post-election protests in Kenya . At the time, he earned a living as a bricklayer. She was a homemaker. They lived in Bungoma, a county in western Kenya near the Ugandan border, where they raised their four children together. Life was good to them. “He had worked hard. We had land, two vehicles, a house that was enough for all of us, and four cows,” she says. But after the tragic incident, Phaustine began to live a true nightmare. “First, my husband’s family accused me of instigating his death. We were from different ethnic groups, and they told me they didn’t want me with them. They demolished my home, kicked me out of my village, and left me with only the clothes on my back and my children. They took everything,” she says.

With her children in tow, and recently widowed, she managed to reach Nairobi, Kenya's capital and its main population and economic center. There, she was able to live for a while with her brother, although her sister-in-law didn't want her in that house either. “I started working for the Somali community in Eastleigh [a densely populated neighborhood in the city]. I had to walk five or six kilometers every day to get there.” Phaustine recalls that each family whose clothes she washed or for whom she cooked paid her about 50 shillings (around 33 euro cents). This was insufficient to cover proper food, decent housing, and a basic education for her children. “Life is very expensive. Earning 200 shillings (1.3 euros) every day is not easy at all. I had a very hard time,” she says.

My husband died, and his family demolished my home and drove me from my village. They left me with only my children and the clothes on my back.

Phaustine Nafula, a 64-year-old widow

The story Phaustine tells is a common reality in Kenya, a nation of some 55 million people where, according to estimates from various organizations , there are approximately eight million women (just over 15% of the population) who have lost their husbands. “Widows here face tremendous challenges and often encounter significant difficulties accessing justice, government assistance programs, or financial capital to expand their businesses,” explains Beth Wanjoku, program officer at Come Together Widows and Orphans Organization , a local organization that advocates for widows’ rights in the country.

“Many cannot read or write, suffer gender violence, and must live in informal settlements, in places full of crime and where their children encounter problems such as alcohol or drugs,” she continues.

The organization Wanjoku works for operates in all 47 counties of Kenya, so she is intimately familiar with the human rights violations suffered by these women across the country. “In the west, 'sex for fish' is common; the victims, often without a source of income, must sell their bodies to get food,” she says. She also states that many lawyers abuse their position of power to obtain sexual favors in exchange for legal representation. “This hasn't happened just once or twice; we've documented quite a few cases.” But it is in rural areas where the most serious stories emerge. “Some desperate widows sell their daughters to men who can guarantee their livelihood. They do so for 1,500 or 2,000 shillings (10 to 13.5 euros),” she explains. “And in communities where female genital mutilation is prevalent, when the figure of the protective male disappears from the family, it becomes almost impossible for a widow's daughter to escape this practice,” she adds.

Poverty and access to justice

Veronica Nyawira, a 53-year-old woman who has been widowed since she was 23, tells a story similar to Phaustine's: her husband died after a long and rare illness, for which they spent all their savings. They had five children. “My husband's family blamed me. Before he died, he was unable to move for a year. Then they accused me of witchcraft. They didn't even attend his funeral,” she says. She had to move to one of Nairobi's informal settlements, and there began a life of hardship and poverty. “We didn't even have a chair to sit on. I started working for other people, doing housework, but I barely earned 200 shillings a day.” In this sense, hers is not an exceptional case; According to the latest data from Kenya's National Bureau of Statistics , corresponding to 2022, more than three and a half million Kenyans cannot afford the basic daily food basket, even if they allocate all their income to food alone.

Janet Anyango is a lawyer and deputy director of the Kenya Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA ), an organization that works to promote the rights of women and girls in Kenya through free legal services. “We have received cases of women who have been disinherited. Often, when their husbands die, they are not educated enough to understand or know about legal processes, or they don't even know that the law protects them,” she explains. She also speaks of the difficulties brought on by the poverty that often affects widows: “It is a major obstacle. Many of those affected say that the courts are very far from where they live, and they cannot afford transportation.” All of this, she adds, is exacerbated in rural areas of the country. “There are patriarchal cultures that still believe that women are not capable of owning land,” she asserts.

In Kenya, there are patriarchal cultures that still live under the belief that women are not capable of owning land.

Janet Anyango, lawyer for the Kenya Federation of Women Lawyers

Anyango speaks of the legal advances brought about by the current Constitution, approved in 2010 , which she describes as very progressive in this area. “It prohibits this type of discrimination. Article 27 expressly states that men and women have the right to equal treatment. It also allows women, of course, to own land,” she affirms. The expert also cites Article 2, which establishes the nullity of any customary law that is incompatible with this text, and expressly states that international laws will form part of Kenyan law, a nation that has signed treaties that directly prohibit grounds for discrimination. But even so, some widows continue to face significant difficulties. “Although access to digital justice was facilitated in 2024, many women do not have internet access or a smartphone . And there is also the language barrier: some speak neither English nor Swahili (the two official languages ​​of the country), only their native languages.”

Rose Ndunge, a 60-year-old widow since she turned 42, knows all too well about poverty and the hardships the experts talk about. “When my husband died, my family told me I couldn’t live with them, that I had to go live with his family. But they didn’t want me either. I had to take my three children, build a shelter under a tree, and stay there for a few months,” she says. Everything changed when a friend told her about an orphanage for children, where she was able to stay for two years. Then she started washing clothes door-to-door until she managed to save some money and move to a small house in Kasarani, a poor neighborhood in Nairobi. It was 2010. “I think the most important thing was meeting other women in the same situation. Sharing experiences, looking for a good education for our children… Making life easier for each other, ultimately. Being together keeps us safe.”