POLYGAMY IN KENYA

Really. 

Who would want more than one wife? 

Imagine married to more than one of me!!! 

I guess you don’t ask me that question anyway, you would ask my ex-husband on that one!

So what’s the story?  The Marriage Bill 2013 consolidates Islamic, Christian, Hindu, civil and customary marriage provisions and offers protection for civil, traditional and religious forms of marriages.  Although the bill threatens some traditional marriage practices like bride-price payments, it also firmly upholds others like polygamy. In fact, it defines marriage as “a monogamous or polygamous union,” recognizing polygamy universally, as opposed to the current law, which limits its recognition to Islamic and customary marriages. By legalizing polygamy, the Kenyan government intends to unite civil law and customary law under one uniform code. However, this feat may prove problematic, considering that Kenya hosts 40 ethnic groups within its borders, many of whom pride themselves upon their unique marriage customs. Moreover, the legalization of polygamy promotes a form of gender inequality because polyandry, marriage between one woman and multiple husbands, remains illegal.  Is that fair?  And why-really across the world this is the case? But then again, who wants more than one husband?

While the Marriage Bill 2013 offers protection for civil, traditional, and religious forms of marriages and even recognizes new forms of “irregular” marriages like “come-we-stay” unions, it does not legalize all forms of marriage.  The “come-we-stay” provision stipulates that couples who live together for six months or more will be considered legally married. Consequently, the bill’s passage may affect co-habitation in Kenya, especially for couples who are averse to being forced into marriage by the government.  Forcing marriages upon couples instead of allowing them to marry of their own volition, the bill will promote unstable marriages that lead to divorce and family disunity.  In keeping with Kenyan laws banning homosexual acts, the bill does not offer any protection or recognition for same-sex relationships, defining marriage as “the voluntary union of an adult man and adult woman.”   The Bill is quite clear that marriage is a union between two adults of the opposite gender and will disappoint those who would have hoped that there could be a way to legalise same-sex marriages.  You wonder who having more wives is allowed, but wives cannot have more than one husband and they will not legalise same sex marriage?  I know how controversial same sex marriage is all over the world but really is worse than having more than one spouse?  Just saying!

So what is all the fuss about?  To sum it up, it is a controversial unification of Kenyan marriage laws under the marriage bill of 2013.  The Kenya’s cabinet has recently approved the Marriage Bill 2013, a proposed law that legalizes polygamy, bans bride-price payments, and recognizes “come-we-stay” relationships as marriages. Although parliament has yet to pass the law, it has already received mixed reviews from Kenyans.  It also criminalises incest by prohibiting marriage to a person’s grandparent, child, grandchild, sister, brother, cousin, great aunt, great uncle, aunt, uncle, nephew, great niece or great nephew.  This would be punishable by imprisonment for a maximum five years or a fine not more than Sh300,000 or both.  Under the new bill some other proposals are: 

1.    Men could soon be charged in a Law Court for failing to marry someone’s daughter after promising to marry her.  Men and women whose partners promise marriage but fail to deliver will be entitled to compensation if a proposed Bill is enacted.  However, they will have to convince a court that the promise was made and that they had suffered damages as a result of it not being fulfilled.

2.    Men and women whose partners promise marriage but fail to deliver will be entitled to compensation if a proposed Bill is enacted.

3.    The Bill provides for a couple to decide and register their marriage as monogamous, meaning any attempts to make it polygamous would be illegal. 

4.    Men who secretly marry additional wives could also be in trouble as the Bill states that before a man is allowed to take another wife, the current wife or wives will be required to give their approval. 

5.    Spouses will have equal rights on matrimonial property and where a man embraces a polygamous relationship, the right to property of the first wife is protected. The Bill places safeguards to protect the first wife who is usually neglected when the man takes in the second, often younger wife. “For instance if a man decides to bring another woman after 20 years of their marriage, the property must be shared in an equitable manner”.

6.    It also secures polygamous marriage by stating that it may not be converted to a monogamous one unless the husband has only one wife.

7.    This would mean that a man who neglects his wives and pretends to be monogamous would be breaking the law.

8.    Men who secretly marry additional wives could also be in trouble as the Bill states that before a man is allowed to take another wife, the current wife or wives will be required to give their approval.

Among the most controversial of the bill’s provisions is the proposed ban on bride-price payments, which are paid by the groom or his family to the bride’s parents upon their marriage. In Kenya, bride-price payments are usually made in cows, and customary law currently dictates that marriage is only legal if these payments are made. While this kind of customary law still prevails throughout Africa, including South Sudan, the Kenyan cabinet aims to harmonize the nation’s marriage laws, regardless of ethnic, non-country specific customs.  Penalties for infringing the Bill, when passed into law, include being imprisoned for five years or a Sh300,000 (3,614AUD) fine or both.

According to the new Bill the meaning of marriage is the voluntary union of a man and a woman intended to last for their life time.  There may be contracted or celebrated in Kenya, two kinds of marriages 1. Marriage’s that are monogamous and 2. Marriages that are polygamous or are intended by each party, at the time of marriage, to be potentially polygamous.  A marriage contracted in Kenya or abroad may be converted from being a potentially polygamous marriage to a monogamous marriage if the spouses declare that they both agree, of their own free will to such conversion.

So the controversial Marriage Bill 2013 was formally introduced in the National Assembly today.  It will be interesting to see if it passes for the fourth time that it has come before the courts.

Would you be a polygamist if it was legal?