Kenya Redefines Marriage In A Blow To Women’s Rights
A push by Kenya’s president and male-dominated parliament to overhaul marriage bodes ill for the nation’s wives, socially and economically.
By Jacob Kushner | May 3, 2014
NAIROBI, Kenya – President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a new marriage law this week that drastically restricts the rights of women in wedlock. Human rights advocates here and abroad are condemning the law, which grants men the right to marry a second, third or even fourth wife without the previous wives’ permission. Currently, certain traditions allow men to take multiple wives, but only if he first gains their approval. There is no law that allows women to take multiple husbands.
“When you marry an African woman, she must know the second one is on the way, and a third wife… this is Africa,” National Assembly member Junet Mohammed said during deliberations by parliament, whose members are 81 percent men. “Parliament has discovered it has this ability to formulate laws that serve its interest,” said Tom Odhiambo, professor of cultural studies at the University of Nairobi. “Because many (members of parliament) are married to women whose social status and education level is below theirs, they can always go home and say “the Constitution allows me to marry a second wife.”
Just four years ago, human rights groups applauded Kenya after it ratified a new, progressive constitution in 2010. But the country’s legislators have been reluctant to pass laws that conform to that landmark document. “Article 45(3) of the Constitution states that Parties to a marriage are entitled to equal rights at the time of marriage, during the marriage and at the dissolution of the marriage. There is urgent need to bring those laws and customs in conformity with the constitution,” wrote the Kenya Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in a recent memorandum on the Marriage Act.
After parliament passed the regulation, Kenyans waited for nearly one month to see whether President Kenyatta — who stands accused before the International Criminal Court of committing crimes against humanity during Kenya’s violent 2007-2008 Presidential election — would risk further soiling his human rights image by signing it into law. Christian and Hindu leaders joined human rights advocates in calling on Kenyatta to veto the Act, saying polygamy violates their religious edicts. In Kenya, marriage has always been legally complex: The 2010 Constitution establishes different rules for different types of marriages — not only common law marriages and “registrar” (courtroom) ones, but also marriage rites for people of different religions including Christians, Muslims and Hindus. The new Marriage Act also forbids people with mental disabilities from wedding at all. It will deny marriage to people with “any mental disorder or mental disability whether permanent or temporary… so as not to (depreciate) the nature or purport of the ceremony.”
Read more at: http://www.mintpressnews.com/kenya-redefines-marriage-blow-womens-rights/190042/
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