House Ownership among Kenyan Women - Stats Kenya

Ownership of a house and other assets, such as land, is critical to women's overall economic wellbeing. According to the DHS, ownership and control of these assets enhance women's and men's ability to access essential economic resources that grant them additional status, economic value, and even bargaining power at home.^[1]

In Kenya, however, ownership of these assets by women is low, creating instances where women lose everything they have in case of abandonment and marital dissolution.^[2] Lower ownership of assets also exacerbates poverty, increases wealth inequality, and reduces access to improved sanitation and electricity. 

We have two data sources on house and land ownership in Kenya by gender: the 2019 census and the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, 2022.^[3]

Quick Facts

1. In 23.9% of households in Kenya, the dwelling unit (house) was owned by a woman, compared to 37.4% of households where a man owned the dwelling unit.^[4]
2. Only 7.9% of households in Urban areas had a female as the owner of the dwelling unit, compared to 34.1% of rural households.
3. Only 4.5% of women aged 15 – 49 owned a house alone compared to 27.7% who owned a house jointly with their husbands.
4. 3.1% of women aged 15 – 49 owned agricultural land alone, compared to 19.7% who owned the land jointly with their husbands.
5. 1.4% of women aged 15 – 49 owned non-agricultural land alone, compared to 4.8% who owned the land jointly with their husbands.

Fewer women than men own houses in Kenya

Whether we look at census or DHS data, what is clear from both is that women have a lower house ownership rate than men. In 2019, 23.9% of households lived in a house owned by a female occupant, compared to 37.4% by a male.^[5]

Similarly, DHS data points in the same direction: 4.5% of women aged 15 – 49 own a house alone compared to 34.7% of men.

Moreover, 27.7% of women owned a house jointly with their husbands, 0.2% owned a house jointly with somebody else, 0.3% owned a house jointly with their husband and someone else, and 0.1% owned a house both alone and jointly. This brings the total house ownership among Kenyan women to 32.8%.

A majority of women do not own houses and land.

Even though 4.5% of Kenyan women owned a house alone and 27.7% jointly with their husbands, the DHS found that 67.2% did not own any house. On the other hand, the percentage of men who did not own a house was lower, at 55.4%.

More women in rural than urban areas own houses.

Census 2019 data is disaggregated by residence, showing house ownership in rural and urban areas by sex. The data shows that 34.1% of households in rural areas had a female owner, compared to 7.9% in urban areas.

Women were also more likely to rent houses in urban than rural areas. In rural areas, only 5% of households were headed by a female renting the home, compared to 28.8% in urban areas. 

These disparities could be attributed to factors such as more expensive land and housing in urban areas, which creates a significant barrier to homeownership.

Married men were more likely to own houses alone than jointly with their wives.

An interesting parameter to examine is the proportion of men who own a house alone compared to women and the proportion of men who own a home jointly with a wife. We find that 51% of married men owned a house alone, compared to 18.4% of married men who owned a house jointly with a wife.

In women, however, only 2.5% of those married owned a house alone. A majority (49.1%) owned the home jointly with the husband. This asymmetry tells us that men were more likely to own property alone than with their wives even in marriage. At the same time, women were more likely to own a house jointly with a husband than alone. 

The same is true of agricultural and non-agricultural land ownership. 1.6% of married women owned agricultural land alone, and 34.9% owned it jointly with their husbands. In addition, 0.9% of married women owned non-agricultural land alone, compared to 8.5% of married women who owned it jointly with their husbands.

However, among married men, 41.5% owned agricultural land alone, with only 7.6% owning it jointly with the wife. In addition, 11.3% owned non-agricultural land alone, compared to 1.9% who owned it jointly with the wife.^[6]

Divorced, separated, and widowed women were likelier to own a house and land singly.

Married women had lower levels of single-house ownership compared to divorced/separated and widowed women. In 2022, 54.7% of widowed women owned a house alone compared to 2.5% of married women. 11.8% of divorced and separated women owned a home alone, higher than in married women.

We observe the same trend in land ownership: 37.3% and 10% of widowed women owned agricultural and non-agricultural land alone, respectively, and 7.8% and 3.1% of divorced/separated women owned agricultural and non-agricultural land alone.

House ownership in women increases with age.

Younger women were less likely to own a house than their counterparts in older age groups. In 2022, 0.3% of women aged 20 – 24 owned a house alone compared to 14% of women aged 45 – 49.

Joint house ownership also increased with age, with 48.8% of women aged 45 – 49 owning a house jointly with a husband or someone else compared to 16.7% of women aged 20 – 24.

House ownership in women decreases with education level

Women with more than a secondary education were less likely to own a house alone (3.2%) or jointly (20.4%) than their counterparts without education. 10.3% of women with no education owned a house alone, while 36.3% owned the house jointly with someone else.

Lower house ownership as education attainment increases could be attributed to residence, with educated women likely to reside in urban areas where house acquisition is expensive.

Another significant difference is that educated women were likelier to have their names on the title deed than uneducated women. For instance, 16.6% of women with a higher than secondary education had their names on the title deed compared to 6.2% of women without education. Overall, more uneducated women (85.2%) did not have a title deed compared to those with higher than secondary education, at 59.3%.

House ownership decreases with increasing wealth level

As with education attainment, wealthier women were more likely to reside in urban areas, making house ownership expensive. 8.8% of women in the lowest wealth level owned a house alone compared to 2.4% of women in the highest wealth level.

Additionally, 36.8% of women in the lowest wealth level owned a house jointly with someone else, compared to 17.8% of women in the highest wealth level. However, women in the highest wealth level were more likely to have their name on the title deed at 29% compared to women in the lowest at 2.8%.

Overall, 87.5% of women in the lowest wealth level owned a house without a title deed compared to 43.4% of women in the highest wealth level. This tells us that even though educated and wealthy women had lower house ownership rates, they were more likely to have formal documentary proof of home ownership.

House ownership in Kenya is lowest in urban counties

Census data disaggregates the tenure status of households in Kenya by county, and evidence suggests that ownership of houses for men and women is lower in urban counties. In Nairobi, only 3.1% of households had a female as the owner of the house. In Mombasa it was 7.6%, Kiambu 11.2%, Kajiado 16.8%, Nakuru 16.8%, and Uasin Gishu 18%.

The chart below shows the distribution of households in Kenya where a female owned the house.

The counties with the highest share of households in which females owned a house were Samburu (54.2%), Mandera (50.9%), Turkana (46.2%), Wajir (44.3%), Marsabit (41.6%), Garissa (41.1%), and Homa Bay (39.7%).

The table below shows data from the DHS, which, unlike the census, focuses on women aged 15 – 19. It also highlights whether women owned the house alone or jointly with their husbands. House ownership among women in Kenya was highest in Samburu (61.1%), Homa Bay 59.3%, Narok 59.1%, Kisii 56.6%, Turkana 56.5%, and Siaya 51.8%.

The lowest house ownership in women was in Wajir 7.7%, Garissa 8.4%, Mandera 10.5%, Nairobi 13.6%, Marsabit 14.8%, Laikipia 16.1%, and Mombasa 16.7%.

See Also

1. Wealth and economic wellbeing in Kenya
2. Wealth Inequality in Kenya by County

References