By Stephen Musyoka
Women facing land injustices can now report their grievances through a mobile application.
Haki Ardhi App, a women land rights reporting tool, was launched during the International Women’s Day in Nairobi on Friday.
The App, which was piloted in Kakamega and Taita Taveta counties last year, is an initiative of the Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) and other partners.
The tool also has a toll-free text function which has been effective in helping women report land rights injustices in a timely manner.
KLA chief executive Faith Alubbe said the effectiveness of the App and the data collected has made it possible for the courts to accelerate the prosecution of some of the stalled land rights violation cases where women are victims.
“It was important for us to launch the App because we noticed that there is a big gap in terms of access to remedy for most women, most women face a lot of challenges yet they do not understand or they do not know where to get their justice,” Alubbe said.
Alubbe said the App documents women’s land grievances in order to catalyse response while avoiding risks associated with in-person complaints.
With Haki Ardhi, women will be able to report abuses and violations in a safe way that will also enable faster access to support and local organisations supporting them will be able to digitise the case files that are currently on paper.
This will in turn enable a close follow-up on cases and the centralisation and display of data to identify trends and push for systemic policy change.