Socio-legal contests to customary authority: a human rights perspective on the changing character of indigenous norms in Kenya

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Periodical article

Title:	Socio-legal contests to customary authority: a human rights perspective on the changing character of indigenous norms in Kenya
Author:	Juma, L.
Year:	2006
Periodical:	Lesotho Law Journal: A Journal of Law and Development
Volume:	16
Issue:	2
Pages:	219-247
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	conflict of laws customary law human rights gender inequality Luo
Abstract:	Based on fieldwork carried out among the Luo of western Kenya in 2002, this article shows how sociolegal contests to indigenous institutions occur in Kenyan rural communities and, thereby, creates an understanding of how human rights can be best propagated in these settings. Today, indigenous systems compete with a full array of government policies aimed at minimizing their effect on normative development, commerce and even politics, and they have had to modify themselves to retain relevancy. The process of change inherent therein has generated contests and contradictions that reflect the true essence of an African society. These contests take various forms. The most pragmatic and revealing are the differences between the young and the old; contests between the sexes; economic differentiation; and the constant pull and push between State authority and traditional authority. Notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]