A new law that has been passed in Kenya makes it legal for a man to marry as many women as he wants. The new law has been applauded by a leading women’s group.
President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the polygamy bill into law recently to officially recognize what has long been a cultural practice in the country.
The bill was passed by the Parliament in March despite protests from female lawmakers who angrily walked out of the late-night session at that time.
Initially, the bill allowed the first wife the right to veto the husband’s choice of additional wives. Male members of parliament successfully pushed to get that clause removed.
In a statement, Kenyatta said: “Marriage is the voluntary union of a man and a woman whether in a monogamous or polygamous union.
“The Marriage Act 2014 defines various types of marriages including monogamous, polygamous, customary, Christian, Islamic and Hindu marriages.”
Though the law legalizes polygamous unions, it does not provide an official limit on the number of wives a man can have.
The Federation of Women Lawyers, a powerful women’s rights group, welcomed some aspects of the bill and criticized others.
Already, Polygamy is a common fixture among a lot of cultures in Kenya and some African countries.
The rights group said the bill is long overdue as polygamous unions were previously not regarded as equal to regular marriages.
Christine Ochieng, the Executive Director of Kenya’s Federation of Women Lawyers said: “We are happy with the law because finally all marriages are being treated equally.
“All marriages will be issued with marriage certificates, including customary marriages. Before this, customary marriages were treated as inferior with no marriage certificates. This opened up suffering for the women because they could not legally prove they were married to a particular man.”
She however said the first wife must have a say in picking her husband’s co-wives.
“What we are not happy about is that now a man can marry another wife or wives without the consent of the first wife.
“That section of the law is potentially open to abuse because a man can secretly marry other wives because he doesn’t need his wife’s consent to marry.”
