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{
"id": 425088,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/425088/?format=api",
"text_counter": 272,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Njuki",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 1372,
"legal_name": "Onesmus Muthomi Njuki",
"slug": "onesmus-muthomi-njuki"
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"content": "appearance of the young ones. Sometimes they see big bodies and the capability to give birth and want to get married to those girls very fast. I am happy that this Bill makes this a crime. Those people who have been going for very young children will actually be put into check. Hon. Deputy Speaker, in biology, there is what is called pedigree. That is normally brought about by in-breeding or inter-breeding. When people belonging to the same line of genealogy or genes inter-marry, we normally have a problem of getting low pedigree or, in other words, we get people who do not have very good qualities in terms of the genetic makeup. In Section 10, this Bill addresses this issue because it prohibits marriage to cousins, grandmother and fathers. Of course, this is in a Christian marriage. I believe before one gets involved, it is very important that they will be checking to ensure that they are not related in any way. Hon. Deputy Speaker, on the issue of the qualification of the officers and especially the pastors and the reverends who normally celebrate a marriage or unite a marriage; this has been a very hot issue in Kenya. We have a diversity of religions. At the moment, if you have a church pastor, a reverend or bishop who may not be authentic, this Bill actually articulates clearly that to be able to unite or officiate wedding, you must get a licence from the registrar. Therefore, this Bill will check those pastors who unite couples without a licence. Hon. Deputy Speaker, a person who maliciously or fraudulently objects to a marriage will not be entertained. This has been a very common phenomenon in Kenya. As you grow up, you date several people but finally decide to marry one of them. It then happens that after you have spent so much money planning your wedding, somebody stands up from nowhere and stops the wedding without valid reasons, purporting that you had promised to marry them or you had children with them. This Bill is addressing this issue and it should be very clear that if you want to stop a wedding, you should make sure you have, at least, Kshs1 million in the bank and you should be ready to spend five years in jail because of giving false information. However, I have concern on two parts of this Bill; in Section 66(1) on customary marriage and Section 4 on civil marriage. Parties may petition in court for separation or dissolution of marriage, only if they have been cohabiting for, at least, three years. It means that if you have been married in a customary way, you cannot raise any objection unless after three years. It means that you can be abused and you can have issues, but you may not be able to object until maybe five years are over. This could put a bit of strain on the people who may opt for this form of marriage. Lastly, I note that in Section 73 a marriage that has not been consummated since its celebration can be dissolved. In the event that somebody denies, how can that be proved because it is a bit hard for you, as it is just a question of having circumstantial evidence. It may be important for us to put it more clearly when it comes to the Third Reading. Finally, it is the same case with presumed pregnancy before marriage. Sometimes we have ladies who trap men. When you want to get married to a certain man and you have already accidentally got pregnant with another one, you may want to fake the pregnancy and eventually get married to this man. However, if this is ground for The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}