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{
    "id": 463006,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/463006/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 459,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Kajuju",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 840,
        "legal_name": "Florence Kajuju",
        "slug": "florence-kajuju"
    },
    "content": "have equal rights over the property and, therefore, any person can move and seek for declaration of their rights in the event of a dispute. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I pray that my brothers will read Clause 5. Any property that is acquired before marriage by either party, that property shall be regarded as belonging to the party that had acquired it. This provision, therefore, preserves the rights of a party before marriage. In this Bill, there is also provision for prenuptial agreement. So, if you have a property and you intend to enter into a marriage relationship, you can enter into a prenuptial agreement. That is an agreement between the parties getting into marriage, in which each party declares the property he or she owns. The agreement will provide that the property that each party owns will remain his or her property even after entering into the marriage contract. This is a good provision because even after marriage, if a party acquires property within that marriage, he or she can seek to have that property as a separate property within the marriage. This gives partners in a marriage a free hand to acquire property separately from the property that we call “matrimonial property”. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Bill also addresses the issue of polygamous marriages and how to deal with the property acquired in such union. If a man and the first wife acquired property before he takes another wife, the property that was acquired within the first union between the first wife and him will be taken to belong to the first wife and him. So, if the man decides to get another wife and he acquires property with her, the property acquired thereafter with the other wife is regarded to belong to the other wife and the man. So, there is a leeway that ensures that a man is not necessarily stopped from entering into another union. If you decide to get another wife, this law does not stop you from owning property with that other partner. In this Bill, there is also the issue of improvement of property. If a man had a parcel of land and he gets married, and he improves this property with the wife; the contribution, in terms of the development of that property will be taken to be for both parties. If it was just a parcel of land that was not developed, and you develop it jointly, it will mean that the other party to the marriage has acquired a beneficial interest in that property. So, this is a good Bill since it seeks to duly protect the interests of the parties to a marriage. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, this law will also apply in a customary marriage when there is dispute relating to divorce or dissolution of marriage. In the event that the parties to a marriage want to dissolve the marriage, the interest in the matrimonial property can be protected before the parties enter into either legal dispute or resolution of the situation. In my life as an advocate, I have come across situations where families have been evicted from their matrimonial homes because the man or the woman had taken a mortgage against the property and failed to repay the loan or he or she dealt with the property in a manner that does not befit the status of the union. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, this Matrimonial Property Act protects the matrimonial home as defined such that either spouse cannot seek mortgage of a matrimonial home or lease the matrimonial home without the written and informed consent of both spouses. The rationale of this provision is to protect the family. We know 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."
}