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{
    "id": 768404,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/768404/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 296,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Murugara",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13491,
        "legal_name": "George Gitonga Murugara",
        "slug": "george-gitonga-murugara"
    },
    "content": "Finally, tied to this Act which is Chapter 168 of the Constitution is Chapter 160 of the Law of Succession Act. This is the law that governs the problems we are faced with in our constituencies, including my own constituency, Tharaka, where hundreds of people, especially widows are waiting for me to assist them to get letters of administration. Their husbands died and they had pieces of land which they cannot deal with until they get letters of administration. My plea to this honourable House is that once the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs is established, we must move with speed to find a solution to how citizens in the rural areas who are widows can be assisted expeditiously to get letters of administration to enable them deal with estates of their deceased husbands. In most cases under African systems, it is the men who have title deeds of property. It is the husbands who work. When they die, the widows are left with no avenue of getting assistance. When you recommend a poor lady to go to the advocates, she is charged Kshs100,000 or Kshs150,000 to protect an estate whose value is not more than Kshs100,000. In essence, it means this lady borrows Kshs100,000 to pay a lawyer, and once she gets the letters of administration, she sells the piece of land, pays back the debt and she becomes destitute. So, it is my humble prayer to that Committee that we look at the Law of Succession Act in such a way that we amend it to make it exceedingly easy for anybody, especially a widow who has lost a husband to go to court and get those letters of administration at minimum costs with great speed, so that her life can go back to normal despite having lost the husband."
}