Tues 9th August 2022, Election Day
In my view, the problem as it seems to me, requires to me, requires to be approached de novo and from quite a different angle. The question posed in this matter needs to be decided with due regard to common sense and some attention to reasonable policy. So the issue in this case is whether the union between the deceased and the Petitioner which lasted for about 10 years, and where all persons around them accepted them as husband and wife in fact is to be treated in Kenyan Law as not marriage at all? Having made a finding that the marriage between the deceased and the objector can be said to have ended by presumption of divorce.
Divorce is not the procedure of filing for a decree nisi in court per se. On a much broader perspective, divorce pertains to the intention and conduct of parties. If parties in a marriage shows an intention not to continue with their marriage or conduct themselves unmarried persons, then the same should treated as such. The law cannot attach obligations upon persons who have decided to part ways but fail to formalize the same, because that is not the true reflection of what they want. In that regard the objector stopped being the deceased’s husband when they separated and moved on.