Kenyan couples will now be allowed to part ways on grounds of deep distrust that cannot be resolved following a decision by High Court Judge Antony Mrima.
The judge granted a divorce to a wife (EAO) and her husband (SAA) after the woman described her irreparable suspicions that her husband was being unfaithful without any evidence of her claimed infidelity.
The two, who were only identified by initials, had moved to court in 2015 after EAO moved out of her matrimonial home and sought to dissolve her marriage before Senior Resident Magistrate M. Wachira.
In March 2017, the magistrate declined to issue the divorce citing that the petitioner had not offered evidence for her allegations.
[caption caption="The Milimani Law Courts that host the High Court of Kenya in Nairobi"]
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SAA further claimed that his wife's allegations were untrue and insisted that he loved her, asking the court to order her to return to their matrimonial home.
Before the High Court, the aggrieved woman appealed the magistrate's decision adding that they had sought counselling from a cleric on four separate occasions and it did not help.
"The evidence in this matter reveals that all is not well between the parties.
"The parties have been living apart since 2015 when the respondent moved out of their matrimonial home and there seems to have been no change even with the intervention of their Bishop," Justice Mrima noted in his judgement.
The judge went on to add that had SAA truly loved EAO then he would have tried to calm the storm in his marriage before it escalated.
Justice Mrima noted that the differences between the two may have appeared trivial to an outsider but they had contributed, to a large extent, to the fall out between the two.
"None of the parties trusts the other as far as marital fidelity is concerned...I am at a loss how parties can earn their mutual respect from one another in such unique circumstances of this matter.
[caption caption="Image of a man taking off his wedding ring to symbolize divorce"]
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"From the firm and opposite positions taken by the parties herein, I don't see how the parties are likely to cope as a married couple even when compelled to remain in such a relationship.
"Compelling the parties herein to remain in a marriage may be a recipe for more harm than the intended good," the judgement read in part.
