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Succession, inheritance top conflicts among Kenyans

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Grievances about succession and inheritance are the most prevalent among households in Kenya, a new national survey showed.

Complaints on the two issues accounted for 26.2 per cent of all concerns by respondents polled by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) followed by land at 16.3 per cent and religious or witchcraft offences at 14.1 per cent.

“Survey findings show that a higher proportion of households in the rural areas (30.9 per cent) experienced grievances related to succession and inheritance compared to urban areas (19.5 per cent),” the KNBS said.

More households in urban areas (21.7 per cent) experienced grievances related to land than their rural counterparts (12.5 per cent), statistics showed.

The proportion of households that reported grievances on land matters was highest in Bomet (62.5 per cent) followed by Nyamira (47.1 per cent), Turkana (45.5 per cent) and Kisii (42.7 per cent).

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Counties that reported relatively high proportions of households with commercial disputes included Nyamira (32.6 per cent), and Homa Bay (26.2 per cent) while family disputes were predominant in Marsabit (21.5 per cent), Bomet (14.2 per cent) and Kilifi (9.3 per cent).

“The results also show that a high proportion of households with disputes related to criminal matters were reported in Murang’a (10.3 per cent) and Siaya (10.1 per cent),” the KNBS said.

Most of the households that experienced conflicts presented their grievances to chiefs or assistant chiefs. Specifically, a high number of households with disputes relating to succession and inheritance, land matters and on personal property reported them to a chief or assistant chief.

“Over 51 per cent of households with disputes related to tenants and landlords, 38.5 per cent with labour disputes and 23.0 per cent with commercial disputes presented their cases directly to the other party,” the survey showed.

Among households that experienced domestic violence, 31.4 per cent reported their cases to members of the extended family (outside the household) for resolution. The majority reported disputes to the police which were classified under traffic (40.5 per cent), criminal (40.4 per cent) and corruption/bribery (36.9 per cent) grievances.

A number of households did not report their grievances to any person, organisation or group for resolution. The survey further showed that households that had grievances on corruption (44.6 per cent), disputes of commercial nature (40.5 per cent), political disagreements (39.7 per cent) and religious/witchcraft offences (39.6 per cent) did not seek resolution.

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