Conjugal Rights Denial Is Cruel, Strong Ground For Divorce, Family Lawyer

• Three main grounds for divorce in a Christian, Civil, or Customary marriage include adultery, cruelty, and desertion
• Family lawyer Alice Oeri said that cruelty captures incidents of assault, refusal to provide for spouse and denial of conjugal rights
• She, however, said that for couples to divorce, they must have been in the first place married according to recognised marital laws of the land

Like love, marriage is a beautiful thing, and this can be seen in the magnificent setups and glamorous dress codes, song, and dance.

Divorces in Kenya

However, as renowned Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe wrote, sometimes the center cannot hold and things have to fall apart, which is what married couples refer to as irreconcilable differences.

While judging a divorce suit filed by the late farmer and politician Jackson Kibor against his second wife, Josephine, the then Eldoret Chief Magistrate Charles Obulutsa said that couples hope their marriages will work, but sometimes it ends up the other way.

“When couples make vows, they believe they will be able to sustain the bond through good times and bad times, but it never always happens, making marriage become like a contract that can be terminated. A popular writer stated there comes a time where the center cannot hold and things fall apart,” said Obulutsa, as reported by The Standard.

Grounds for divorce in Keny

In an exclusive interview with family lawyer Alice Oeri, TUKO.co.ke sought to understand the main grounds for "successful" divorce cases.

Oeri explained that, according to Kenyan law, there are three main grounds for divorce: adultery, cruelty, and desertion.

"Adultery applies where either couple has sexual relations outside marriage. However, it is very hard to prove this particular ground unless it is circumstantial," Oeri explained.

Circumstantial in this context, she expounded, is when a party to the marriage gets a child or children in their course of adultery.

In this scenario, one may need documents like birth certificates of children born out of marriage after a couple is legally married to prove the adultery.

Desertion as grounds for divorce

The lawyer explained that desertion is accepted as a ground for divorce if either of the parties stays away from their marriage for at least three years.

"This can be a standalone reason for one to divorce their partner," explained the lawyer during an interview with TUKO.co.ke on Thursday, August 3.

It means that once married and one of the parties abandons the other for at least three years, the deserted partner can file for divorce and win the case.

Cruelty as grounds for divorce

Oeri said that cruelty includes incidents of assault, refusal to provide for a spouse, and denial of conjugal rights.

Interestingly, not every couple living together can go to court to file for divorce.

Oeri said that divorce applies to married people under the following statutes: African Christian Marriage Cap 151, Civil Marriage Cap 150, and Customary Marriage Laws.