A legal lobby group has filed an application at the court seeking a declaration that parties to a marriage are at Liberty to terminate their marriage by consent .
Through lawyer Edwin Saluny, Copler Attorney’s & Consultancy is seeking a declaration that a decree to terminate marriage shall be filed with the registrar of marriage, and the marriage should be deemed dissolved.
“We are seeking a declaration that part X of the Marriage Act contravenes the provisions of article 2, 10, 45 and 259 of the constitution of Kenya 2010, and thus unconstitutional, “added Saluny.
They are also seeking to have married parties to have the right to exit alive out of association when it is not working.
They want the marriage act that hinders couples to terminate their marriage at consent be amended.
They want a declaration that the right to join a marriage must surely correspond with an equal right to exit, without extraordinary strains.
He says that the petition seeks to make the exit from a marriage as less acrimonious and antagonistic as possible.
“Parties can remain civil, and not resort to fabricating evidence in order to pin faults to each other. Parties to a marriage should be permitted to enjoy the marriage, and not endure it simply because the process of exit is convoluted, costly, and shameful, “he added.
Akusala Boniface who is the director of the lobby group said that he supports the petition to grant parties to a marriage the right to exit alive out of association when it is not working and wait till when their lives are at stake.
He added that indeed, based on the unfolding developments, there are incidents reported where parties to a marriage have arranged for the assassination of their spouses as a method of exit, which they deem less acrimonious and convoluted as litigation.
The petitioner says that the court is enjoined to reflect the aspirations of the people of Kenya, the values and freedoms enshrined in the constitution, and the right to join a marriage must surely correspond with an equal right of exit, which they deem less acrimonious and connoted as litigation.
He added that due to the combative nature of matrimonial proceedings, relations are damaged, and matters of importance as co-parenting and distribution of property become a matter of life and death, where parties are intent on settling Acores rather than co-exist as a couple whose members have differed in opinion and must thus live and exist separate of each other. It has become common of late for warring parties to even cause the death of their spouses in order to not share in matrimonial wealth, or pay alimony.
They add that the children of the parties to divorce proceedings have to bear the shame and public humiliation of their parent’s legal tussles in court, and some of them are even reported in live proceedings .The results are damaging to the mental health and thus live and exist separate from each other.
