Marriage Bill: Govt back to drawing board

BY MOSES MULONDO 

The Uganda Law Reform Commission (ULRC) has embarked on sensitization and consultation of the public on the Marriage and Divorce Bill.

The ULRC officials indicated during the consultative workshop held Thursday in Kampala that the Bill was rejected by the public not because it is bad but because the people were ignorant about the clauses.

“Many of the MPs had not read the Bill and misled their voters to reject it. There has been a lot of misinformation about this good Bill because people did not internalize it well,” said Patrick Nyakaana, the ULRC’s commissioner in charge of law reforms.

Presenting a heap of books and documents arising from the consultations they have held over the years, Nyakana dismissed allegations that they never consulted widely before drafting this Bill which faced hostility in the public.

He appealed to concerned stakeholders including MPs not to throw away the Bill but improve it and pass it to solve the various challenges and conflicts in marriages.

Nyakana criticized the MPs for deliberately misleading their electorate instead of consulting and educating them about the Bill.

The deputy registrar of the family division of the High Court, David Batema Ndikabona appealed to all the stakeholders to intervene and have the Bill passed into law to protect women whose rights are violated in marriage.

“People should be sensitized because they are rejecting what they don’t know. This is the best Bill for our marriages. Divorces are so common. Cohabitation is so common and we need to give legal protection. The Bill will increase the dignity of our mothers and sisters in the marriage setting,” Batema explained.

Citing clauses on divorce and conjugal rights, the presiding Apostle of the Born Again Faith, Dr. Joseph Serwadda, dismissed the claims by Nyakana that they had consulted all the stakeholders before drafting the Bill.

He advised that the Bill should be separated into three independent sections to cater for Christian marriage, customary marriage and civil marriage.
“What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If Muslims have been allowed to have their separate law, we as Christians should be allowed to have our own law,” Serwadda argued.


Early this month, after Parliament had resolved that more consultations be made, the NRM caucus resolved to withdraw the Marriage and Divorce Bill pending further consultations.