A group of women lawyers want the court to compel the Government to enact a law legalising cohabiting couples.

In their petition to the High Court yesterday, December 14, 2022, the lawyers under their umbrella body, Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA -Uganda), argue that the majority of couples in Uganda are cohabiting, a justification for the law to protect them.

FIDA-Uganda and Annette Nassozi filed the petition against the Attorney General, who is the principal legal adviser to the Government.

“The absence of the law protecting partners at the dissolution of these marriages is a gross violation of human rights,” Nassozi contends. Among the violated rights are that of owning property and a right to protect families founded through cohabitation.

They, therefore, seek an order compelling the Government to enact a law protecting these families and partners, noting that they are not addressed in the new Marriage Act, which recognises and protects legally contracted marriages.

The petition has been prompted by Nassozi who claims that unless protected by the law, she is about to walk away from her 27-year-old marriage without anything because she is not a legally married woman.

Nassozi accuses her husband, William Kasenge, of threatening to throw her out of a property which she has contributed and built since 1993.

Nassozi and FIDA are now seeking a court declaration to the effect that she and Kasenge were in a monogamous family union arising out of 27 years of cohabitation and that she is a co-owner of the couple's only acquired property located in Makindye East Division, Bunga Hill in Kampala.

FIDA contends that since women are reported to be economically disempowered, they are the most affected individuals when a cohabitation marriage is irretrievable and hence a law must be put in place to protect them.

FIDA noted that 70% of the family disputes received at their legal aid clinic indicate that land documents bear only the names of men/husbands in cohabitation marriages, thus putting women at a disadvantage.