In Widow Inheritance and Contested Citizenship in Kenya, Awino Okech examines the practice among Luo communities in Kenya, focusing on its reception among widows and the wider Luo community. Okech argues that widow inheritance, like so many cultural rites that focus on women’s bodies and sexuality, is understood and mobilized in the face of repeated experiences of structural and physical political violence, and other threats to Luo cultural integrity.
The book presents five succinct chapters with an introduction and conclusion, and is based on a case study of a specific set of villages just outside Kisumu city in 2008–09. Okech conducted interviews and focus groups with women who had experienced widow inheritance, as well as men who held roles within the rite, and cultural leaders. The roles of women and the centrality of their bodies in preserving Luo cultural practice and identity in the face of the postcolonial Kenyan national project are explored through an examination and assessment of their performances of culturally appropriate femininity—gendered performances that have the capacity to reinforce and reconstitute Luo identity.