{"id":7905,"date":"2014-03-21T06:08:45","date_gmt":"2014-03-21T10:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=7905"},"modified":"2014-03-21T07:29:42","modified_gmt":"2014-03-21T11:29:42","slug":"kenyan-parliament-makes-controversial-amendments-to-marriage-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/7905","title":{"rendered":"Kenyan Parliament makes controversial Amendments to Marriage Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Male and female members of the Kenyan parliament were drawn into a sharp debate on Thursday as the National Assembly tabled proposed amendments to the country’s Marriage Bill.<\/p>\n

Although the house made numerous changes to the bill at the end of the day, the crux of the debate was the clause that required a man to seek permission from his wife before marrying another woman.<\/p>\n

Male legislators argued that the clause goes against both traditional and biblical culture, adding that it is unlikely a woman would consent to such a request.<\/p>\n

However, female legislators highlighted the fact that polygamous families are usually drawn into bitter inheritance disputes.<\/p>\n

Despite continued protests by the females, the males – majority in the house – had the upper-hand and the amendments were made.<\/p>\n

A report by Capital FM quotes Mumias East Member of Parliament, Banjamin Washiali, saying – in defense of the bill – that “I am a son of the second wife of my father, if this Bill was in place, I would not be in this world.”<\/p>\n

Reports indicate that female members of the assembly staged a walk-out of the house in protest against the amendments.<\/p>\n

The house also modified a clause that makes males who promise to marry a woman, but change their decision, liable to be fined.<\/p>\n

Male legislators\u00a0categorized the clause as extortion, arguing that such agreements are mutual therefore one partner shouldn’t be made to bear the blame for its failure.<\/p>\n

The house also passed a clause against same sex marriage and for all marriages to be legally registered – irrespective of the religion of the couple.<\/p>\n

The new amendments, which also includes a clause that in the event of a divorce both partners should share the cost of caring for their children, has been hailed by many pundits as long-awaited.<\/p>\n

However, many female commentators and some religious leaders have been critical of some aspects of the bill.<\/p>\n

Recently, the Kenyan parliament also amended the country’s Matrimonial Property Act 2013. Under the new law, which recognises non-material contribution to a house-hold, both partners legally have equal ownership of all the properties acquired during their relationship.<\/p>\n

Photo by Standard Digital: The Kenyan Parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Male and female members of the Kenyan parliament were drawn into a sharp debate on Thursday as the National Assembly tabled proposed amendments to the country’s Marriage Bill. Although the house made numerous changes to the bill at the end…<\/span> Read more ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[44,1],"tags":[2033,4966,2031,2034,2032],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}