CJ Koome Clarifies Proposing Bill To Allow Wedded Persons Marry Outside Wedlock

The Judiciary has dismissed reports claiming that Chief Justice (CJ) Martha Koome proposed that wedded persons intending to marry outside wedlock will be allowed to seek other partners even if their spouses are still alive.

In a statement on Thursday, November 2, the Judiciary revealed that the CJ is proposing to decriminalize bigamy but this does not mean that the married people will be legally allowed to marry outside the union.

"The bill proposes to decriminalise bigamy. It doesn't make it legal to marry outside the union but is a civil matter that should lead to divorce.

"Bigamy has been in law since 1930 with no prosecutions. It's a personal choice that can be remedied through divorce, not criminal proceedings," explained the Judiciary.

The current Penal Code states that any person legally married and secretly weds outside marriage is guilty of committing a felony and faces a jail term of five years.

''Provided that this section shall not extend to any person whose marriage with the husband or wife has been declared void by a court of competent jurisdiction, nor to any person who contracts a marriage during the life of a former husband or wife if the husband or wife, at the time of the subsequent marriage, has been continually absent from such person for the space of seven years, and has not been heard of by such person as being alive within that time,'' the section states.

The reports claimed that CJ Koome proposed to repeal a series of sections contained in the Penal Code, including Section 171 which covers Bigamy.

Among the unions that were anticipated to be affected by the proposed law included marriages under religious weddings and legally recognised customary marriages. 

The proposed amendments were reportedly viewed as a means of curbing rampant cases of infidelity and cheating, most of which have triggered messy divorces costing couples billions of shillings and their freedom in terms of imprisonment.

The Marriage Act of 2014 on polygamy was assented into law by former President Uhuru Kenyatta, following its passage in Parliament in March 2014 with the majority of MPs supporting it being male while female MPs opposed it.

Divorce these days is like a way of life, compared to the boomer generation where divorce cases were uncommon. In other words, couples can even call it quits amicably at the start of romantic and intimate matters.

The number of divorce applications in the Judiciary has been on the rise in recent years as evidence of marriage not being a bed of roses. In two years since 2020, a total of 10,338 couples sought to separate due to various grounds informing a divorce.