Marriage Bill idea whose time has come

The Marriage Bill 2013 has come at the right time to the rescue and empower marriages and families.

I envision the future of our families sparkling brighter upon the passage of the Bill and its cousin Matrimonial Property Bill, 2013.

This is how: If spouses will have equal rights on matrimonial property, then the future of the Kenyan woman and mother will be very secure and so will be the future of the Kenyan child and youth.

Women, generally, are real and solid parents; they tend to have the family interests at heart. There is evidence many families have risen from dust to glory because of a woman and moreso a mother.

So, giving them equal property rights with men will serve its purpose. It will empower them.

It will give them the best chance bring up the best families.

In addition, the passage of one of the two Bills, among other things, will serve as an effective antidote to succession disputes. The reason is that the Matrimonial Property Bill states that “where property is registered in the name of one spouse, the other has right to claim it.”

The Marriage Bill, on the other hand, is the best of its own kind because it also recognises polygamous marriages and protects the first wife from neglect in case the man marries another wife.

One of the positive implications of the latter Bill on polygamous marriages is that there will, for the first time, be peaceful coexistence among extended families.

Resources will be distributed fairly among those families. All may even get better education. I say this because the aforementioned things are not happening in most such families.

It will also protect our morals by outlawing unnatural and hazardous marriages such as polyandry (the practice of having more than one husband), and same sex unions.

{Omusolo Moses, Busia}