Inside Bid to Make Divorce Easy, Fast

File Photo of Divorce Papers Being Presented in Court
File Photo of Divorce Papers Being Presented in Court
File

A special interest group has moved to court in a bid to save couples from the painstaking process of ending their marriages.

The group Copler Attorneys and Consultancy wants the process made easy and faster allowing couples to cut ties faster and with ease reducing the burden that is associated with the divorce cases.

In their petition filed in court on Monday, February 21, they want the High Court to quash Part X of the Marriage Act, which provides grounds for divorce and the timelines.

Justifying their bid, the lobby group argued that the Marriage Act contravenes a number of articles of the constitution, therefore, making it unconstitutional.

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A photo of a bridegroom and bride staring at the sunset
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According to their submission in court, a couple should be at liberty to terminate their marriage just after filing the consent that is filed before the Registrar of Marriage.

“A mandatory injunction issued to Parliament to amend the Marriage Act of 2014 and the Matrimonial Causes Act, to enable parties in a marriage of whichever regime to terminate marriage by consent,” their petition read in part.

The lobby group remarked that at the moment, it is traumatising to subject the couple to humiliation, torture, and even expenses that are associated with the entire process.

The process further inconveniences both parties in their bid to cut ties from the partners and exit the union faster. The lobby group explained that most marriages have turned abusive, empty shells, where parties are just in it because of apprehension that their private contentious being, will be aired in public.

In Kenya, laws guiding divorce and separation are still in the amendment process with new directives being adopted on daily basis.

In the latest landmark ruling, secret lovers who are commonly referred to as Mpango was Kando, were granted the right to inherit their parent's property.

In the ruling made by Mombasa High Court on Wednesday, February 16, Judge, Justice Onyiego, children have the right to inherit the property of their parents whether or not their union was formal.

“Since paternity is not denied or challenged, failure by the children’s parents to formalize their marriage cannot be visited on them to deny them what they are, by law, entitled," the judge ruled.

The case involved a man who had sired two kids out of wedlock and the secret lover was locked in a legal battle with the widow over the inheritance.

“The fact that the two children were born during the subsistence of their cohabitation and birth certificates issued with the deceased as their father, the presumption is that they were sired by him.

"The administrators of the estate have no choice but to deliver and execute their mandate by transferring 9.21 per cent of the shares entitled to the deceased to his two children,” the verdict stated.

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An undated photo of a wedding venue at a Kenyan church
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