In spite of Malawi having legislation for protection of rights to land-and-property ownership; somehow, these pieces of law only seem more theoretical than practical.
More; when in the face of such laws, the country continues to register incidents of land-seizure and property-grabbing.
The case of Jessica Chinzu — a widow from 2014 is both disturbing and depressing, having; at the death of her husband, also lost her property.
“A year after the death of my husband his relatives seized all the property we had accumulated. They even claimed ownership of the piece of land on which we used cultivate and left me homeless and with no land.
“As I speak; at the age of 50 I have gone back to my mother’s village,” says Chinzu a resident of Traditional Authority Mazengera in Lilongwe.
More depressing; she said the Police never assisted in spite of reporting the matter for redress.
While confessing the problem; Gender Minister — Patricia Kaliati wades-in on the judiciary.
“Its sad to note the country is continuing to register cases of land-seizure and property-grabbing. Sad also that Chinzu never gotten any help from the Police. I think as a system we need to scale-up our service delivery,” says Kaliati.
However, whilst echoing minister-Kaliati, a women rights campaigner — Jessie Ching’oma faults the state for playing low on land laws.
“The problem as I see it is ignorance of land laws … not many women are aware about them and this subjects them to such forms of injustice as land-seizure,” observes Chingoma.
On the other hand; Edward Thole — Board member for Landnet, a land rights lobby group feels its time government invested resources for active operationalization of the laws.
“Its one thing to have these land laws yet another to have them
operational. But we need a robust structure with land committees and land tribunals for settling of land-related disputes,” says Thole.
And Thole also has reservations with some cultural and traditional practices which are aiding injustice in land ownership issues and thus calling upon government to make tittle deeds “free and mandatory like it is done with national IDs.”
However, minister of Land; Kezzie Msukwa has doubts on this suggestion arguing this exercise would demand massive consultation.
Meanwhile, through its whistle-blowing initiative, Human Rights Defenders Coalition says through chairperson — Gift Trapence his office is flooded with complaints of land-grabbing from widows.
Currently Malawi has the Marriage, divorce and Family relations Act of 2015 and the Land Act of 2016 both of promote fair property distribution in the event of dissolution of a marriage or death of a spouse.
The country also has the Land Act of 2016 which recognizes women’s customary land rights.