Legalizing Polygamy: Mistake, Gift or Diversionary tactic?
President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday (Tuesday 29th) started a war between the female, male and Christian communities in Kenya by signing in the highly controversial Marriage Bill 2013. The law has had mixed reception country wide: the men mostly love it, the women are fuming with anger, and the church is reconsidering its view of the ‘one man for one woman’ mentality. The Bill according to the President aims to “consolidate various laws relating to marriage.” The previous laws governing marriages and unions in Kenya were made by British colonialists before Kenya gained independence in 1963 and as such did not capture the value systems of the indigenous populations, all 42 of them. Many in kenya
One side of the nationwide conversation says the new bill captures a reality that already existed before. “When you marry an African woman, she must know the second one is on the way, and a third wife… this is Africa,” MP Junet Mohammed told the house during debate on the bill. The other side of the conversation maintains that the new law is demeaning and will result in a host of complications regarding inheritance, custody and divorce procedures. The national female rights body, Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA Kenya) has said it will mount a legal challenge against the law. Another take on this debacle is laughing at the whole situation, pitying the man who takes more than one Kenyan wife, even with consultation, thinking the arrangement will do anything other than give two women control over his life.
Like any new law, the onus will fall on the families who suffer or gain as a result of the new law to figure out the holes in this phenomenally biased law. The lesson will be learnt but at what cost? This reporter suspects that, sexism aside, the bill is a diversionary tactics from the government with a war in Somalia, unemployment at 40% and rising, and VAT, a little battle of the sexes is just what Kenya needs to take its mind off of its many mounting problems.
By Ondi Madete
