What is in the new Marriage Bill 2024 of Uganda and what does it mean for Marriage in Uganda
On 3rd October 2024 , the Marriage Bill 2024 was tabled in Parliament of Uganda. This Bill aims to bring several landmark reforms to the marriage laws of Uganda, which include among others;
- Prohibiting co-habitation. The punishment if convicted is a fine of 10m or imprisonment of 3 years. The bill doesn’t criminalize cohabitation perse but purports to criminalize holding out as a married couple by living together and describing yourself as married. This provision is presumably unconstitutional because a person has a right to marry or live with anyone that they please under whatever arrangements they desire. The state interest in promoting regularization of relationships is not weighty enough to override a person’s right to live as he or she pleases and to associate with whomever he or she pleases. The state has other less intrusive means of achieving the state interest. The state can provide financial and tax incentives to promote regularization of domestic relationships.
- Breaching of promise to marry being punishable. The punishment if convicted is paying back to the other person the expenses they have incurred. This provision is redundant because a promise to marry is already a cause of action under Ugandan law. The expenses incurred as a result of breach of a promise to marry that are reasonably foreseeable are recoverable under current law. These can include value of the engagement ring, payments to suppliers and similar experiences. General damages are recoverable for embarrassment and inconvenience.
- Requirement to consummate the marriage within 6 months, failure of which the marriage will be declared voidable. This provision is also redundant because under current law unconsummated marriage is voidable at the insistence of the innocent party. Maybe providing for a timeline clarifies the law because current law provides for consummation within a reasonable time. Reasonable time depends on the circumstances of the parties. This provision sets a timeline of six months within which every marriage must be consummated.
- Making church and civil marriage which are monogamous, potentially polygamous, meaning that those wedded under church will have a right to convert to a polygamous marriage.
- Prohibiting child marriages. Anyone who conducts, attends or arrange ms a marriage involving a minor will be liable to imprisonment for 10 years
- Prohibiting divorce before one year on marriage.
- Prohibiting subjecting children to DNA without a court order. This provision might also be unconstitutional because it grants men less favourable treatment without good cause. The state interest in keeping families together is not weighty enough to justify a law that targets men who are ordinarily the ones in confirming the paternity of children that women allege are theirs. The very high expenses and trauma that men face in rising children that are not theirs create a high threshold for the state to overcome to justify requiring that they must obtain a court order before helping themselves. Court orders are expensive and time consuming to obtain and for this reason the requirement imposes an undue burden on the right of men to rise and be responsible only for children that they have fathered. The requirement of a court order as applied disproportionately burden men more than women without a good justification. It is discriminates Against men.
- Establishing a National Marriage Register to electronically store details of all married people in Uganda.
- Giving a spouse an automatic share one third of marital assets. This is a drastic change in marital relationships because under the current regime a spouse’s share in marital assets depends on their respective contributions whether financial or none financial. The provision might be unconstitutional because it doesn’t take into account the parties respective contributions and the length of the marriage. It is likely to cause a lot of pushback from men who already complain that the current regime unfairly favors women who are rewarded for breaking up marriages and for not considering the contribution of the men to the welfare and assets of the women.
Read More
- Insulting the modesty of a woman in Uganda is an unconstitutionally vague and discriminatory offense
- Enforcement of court orders against government in Uganda: The restrictions on attachment of government property in Uganda violate the right to a fair hearing
- What is in the new Marriage Bill 2024 of Uganda and what does it mean for Marriage in Uganda
- Using Undercover Operations to detect, Investigate and deter Corruption in the Judiciary of Uganda
- Rights and obligations or duties of the buyer and seller of Land in Uganda.
