Tororo Woman MP Sarah Opendi speaks during plenary at Parliament on May 16, 2023. PHOTO/DAVID LUBOWA
A new proposed law presented in Parliament this past week seeks to compel couples to have sex within the first six months of their union or risk having their marriage annulled.
The proposal is contained in the Marriage Bill, 2024, fronted by the Tororo District Woman Representative, Ms Sarah Opendi.
Section 41 of the Bill states thus: “A marriage is voidable where one of the parties to the marriage is unable to consummate the marriage within six months of celebration of marriage.”
It adds that marriage is also voidable where one “wilfully refuses to consummate the marriage within three months from the time of celebration of the marriage” and “or conceals a material fact which would otherwise vitiate the other party's consent to the marriage.”
An aggrieved party may apply for nullification of marriage if one wilfully refuses to consummate the marriage within three months from the time of celebration of the marriage; or conceals a material fact which would otherwise vitiate the other party's consent to the marriage.
The Marriage Bill seeks to reform, repeal and consolidate the legal framework governing marriage in Uganda; to provide for recognised marriages in Uganda, registration of marriage, marital rights and obligations, conversion from one form of marriage to another form of marriage, property rights, separation and dissolution of marriage, among others.
The Bill provides for Christian marriages, civil marriages, customary marriages, Hindu marriages, Islamic marriages and Baha’i marriages as the legally recognised marriages in Uganda; and bans same-sex marriages.
It proposes that civil, customary and Islamic marriages can be polygamous. Failure to honour a promise to marry someone will be deemed a crime, with one liable to pay damages for the breach.
Elsewhere, anyone who claims to be married to a particular person and commits an offence known as jactitation of marriage is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding Shs10m or imprisonment not exceeding three years or both.
According to the draft law seen by Sunday Monitor, the legislation if passed in the current state will criminalise the demand for the return of gifts given to their spouses during the marriage with a penalty of three years in jail or a fine of Shs10m.
The new Bill, if passed into law, will ban parents from subjecting children born during the subsistence of a marriage to Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) testing without an order of court.
A person who knowingly undergoes a ceremony of marriage, with another person in a subsisting monogamous marriage, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 500 currency points or imprisonment not exceeding five years or both.
Ms Opendi has proposed a jail term of five years and a fine of Shs10m to be imposed on anyone who knowingly marries another person who is already married in a monogamous form of marriage.
The law also makes provision for a virtual celebration of marriage in case one of the parties cannot be physically present, with guidelines to be issued by the Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister.
A person who impersonates another for the celebration in the course of marriage, or marries under a false name or description with intent to deceive the other party to the marriage commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding Shs10m or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both.
Ms Opendi, in Clause 43 of The Marriage Bill, seeks to give women the right to retain their maiden names upon marriage, which at the same time bars women from using their husband’s name upon the dissolution of the marriage, unless mutually agreed upon.
“A wife shall be entitled to either retain her maiden name or to use both her maiden name and her husband's surname, during the subsistence of the marriage,” the Bill reads in part.
Where, at the dissolution of marriage, court orders for payment of maintenance to a spouse, the payment of maintenance shall cease upon the marriage of that spouse.
“A wife shall not be entitled to the continued use of her husband's surname upon dissolution of marriage unless both parties mutually agree to the wife's continued use of the name,” the Bill states in part.
Debts accumulated before the marriage shall remain the sole responsibility of the bearer and not be transferred.
