What you need to know:
Uganda has got several forms of recognised marriages. These are customary, Muslim, Church, Civil and Hindu marriages. Customary marriages are celebrated according to the rites of an African community and one of the parties to the marriage must be a member of that community.
The Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA – Uganda) have petitioned court to compel government to come up with a law that will protect the rights of women who are in cohabiting relationship, especially when couples separate.
FIDA-Uganda alongside Ms Annette Nassozi, in their law suit filed yesterday before the High Court in Kampala, said not having a law to protect the rights of cohabiting women, tantamount to discrimination and a violation of the Constitution.
Core to the law suit is that Ms Nassozi cohabited with Mr William Kasenge for 27 years and in the process contributed to the buying of property and also used her own resources to construct rented houses but on her man’s land. The couple had four children.
Court documents show that after the couple developed irreconcilable differences, the man has since denied her access to her rentals because there are no existing laws that recognise her as a “legal wife”.
“The failure of the 2nd respondent (Attorney General) to enact laws that guarantee the social security recognition and protection of rights of people in monogamous cohabitation relationships, during the subsistence of the relationships and in the event of the termination of their relationship, whether by death or separation; while having in place similar laws for married people, is a clear difference in treatment accorded to people in monogamous cohabitation,” the court documents read in part.
They add: “This amounts to a violation of the right of the 1st applicant (Ms Nassozi), and the people in monogamous de facto family forming unions arising from discrimination on the basis of marital status, as a social status, contrary to Article 21 of the 1995 Constitution.”
The petitioners further contend that government has an obligation within the meaning of articles 21 and 33 (2) and (3) of the Constitution to undertake legislative reform to eliminate any form of discrimination against women in family life, including discrimination on the basis of marital status and sex.
“The obligation is to undertake legislative reform in order to eliminate any form of discrimination against women in family life,” the court records read in part.
Demographic health survey report published by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics revealed a steady increase in the number of women in cohabiting relationships increasing from 14 percent to 30 percent among women. Among men, the number increased from six percent to 19 percent. This was between 2006 and 2016. Various government reports also show that women in Uganda are more economically disadvantaged than men as they constitute more of the unemployed poor, own less of agricultural land, own less of the houses, with their ownership of property at 28 percent, while their counterparts own 31 percent.
According to FIDA, this is indicative of an even higher percentage of people in cohabitation in the country, who are starting families together without getting into any of the legally recognised marriages, hence the need to put in place laws that protect such categories of people.
Ms Nassozi and FIDA now want court to issue a permanent injunction against Mr Kasenge, his agents and all people who want to deprive her of accessing her rentals and other property by forcefully evicting her or selling off her property without her consent, since she claims to be a co-owner with the man.
