Ugandans not registering their customary marriages

Sep 15, 2016

Marriage registration is continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal.

70% of couples under the age of 40 have not registered their customary marriages with the Uganda Registration service Bureau (URSB). This means that their marriages are not known by the state.

"A certificate issued by cultural offices has no evidential value until the respective marriage is properly filed with the registrar of marriages," said Charles Nsimbi, a civil registration manager at URSB.

Nsimbi noted that registration of customary marriages is affected by the Sub County chief or Town Clerk of the area where it took place and a customary carriage certificate duly signed and issued by the Sub County chief or Town Clerk. This certificate, however, must then be registered with URSB.

The Customary Marriage (registration) Act, which was introduced in 1973, requires that parties to a customary marriage register their marriage with the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (or its agents, i.e., the Chief Administrative Officers at the district level). Such registration must take place within six months of the marriage ceremony and failure to register is an offence under the Act.

The Bureau is calling upon the public to register their marriages and do not just stop at splashing money on Kwanjulas.

Asked why people do not register their marriages, Elizabeth Masaba, a marriage counsellor said that it is ignorance that stops many from registering their marriages.

"The bureau should do more work in sensitizing people about the benefits of legalizing their marriages. Most women think after Kwanjula, that is the end," says Masaba.

Edith Mukisa, a counsellor says that some people are aware that they are supposed to register but they don't treat customary marriage as marriage. They value church marriages more. She also said that some cultures like in the north, they do not issue certificates after a traditional marriage that is why many do not see the reason to register.

Marriage registration has various purposes

Every certificate of marriage that has been filed with URSB is admissible as evidence of the marriage to which it relates; in any court of law or before any person having by law or consent of the parties, authority to receive evidence on it.

A registered marriage is a safeguard for spousal benefits like insurance, pension, citizenship, immigration, emigration, family resettlements as well as inheritance of estates upon the demise of a spouse.

Marriage records provided to URSB by marriage celebrants are used to compile a marriage data bank. A credible marriage data base is a safe guard against bigamy, polygamy and polyandry in the case of church and civil marriages. Many people spend huge sums of money contracting marriages to parties that have subsisting marriages and have no legal capacity to remarry. For these reasons above, marriage registration is continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal.

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