CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction Recognition of duty between spouses began a long time ago. This led to the development of fiduciary spousal duties 1 • The husband because of his management and control over the community propetty naturally occupied the position of a trustee for a wife and the family2 As such, based on the historical and traditional notions he was deemed the head of the family and tasked with the responsibility of executing important mandates on behalf of the family. Particularly the husband was solely responsible for dealing with all issues pertaining to the matrimonial property. Although land is the most valuable property, the laws regulating its ownership did not promote equality between men and women. This was manifestly clear especially with regard to land held under customary tenure3. This was the most dominant form of land ownership given that most land was not registered. The existing legal regime then provided that matters of land titling could be pursued by an individual or household'1.Unsurprisingly, the law was silent, however, on who could be named on the certificate of title if one was issued. In practice given, the lacuna in the law, lhe male persons as heads of the households always got the certificate issued in their nan1es.