How do I salvage my doomed marriage?

Dear Harold,

I am an avid reader of Family & Law but was recently astonished when you responded to a reader that the law in the country does not provide for divorce by mutual consent. I am in a doomed marriage and both of us know that. We both have extra-marital affairs, which I think would be better if we parted ways on grounds of adultery. Now that divorce by mutual consent is illegal, is there a time frame when a spouse can file a divorce petition?

Paul, Mombasa

Dear Paul,

Family law provides that a couple that underwent statutory marriage can seek divorce in court after being married for at least three years. A husband or wife can request the court to end the marriage within three years after proving that the spouse is cruel and the union has irretrievable broken down. The spouse applying for divorce can prove in court that the union has irretrievably broken down. In addition, the three-year rule would not apply if the couple is under judicial separation meaning; a court ordered that they stop living under one roof as husband and wife. However, judicial separation only applies to couples that tied the knot either at the office of the District Commissioner, Attorney General’s chamber or statutory marriage - in church or garden wedding. Separation is a period when a husband and wife decide to stay apart from each other following differences between them. It can either be by mutual consent or court order (judicial separation). Normally, the intention of separation is not to end marriage but suspend conjugal rights.