Are you a married man and want your wife out of the family house?

If you are a married man and you want your wife out of the family house you will have to obtain a court order in future before you get your wish.

Similarly, women who wish to kick their husbands out will have to seek court orders, if Parliament passes a new Bill approved by the Cabinet last week.

And if you have given a gift to your spouse, you can’t take it back if you fall out unless you made it clear it would be jointly owned.

The Matrimonial Property Bill proposes that a man and his wife will own their property 50-50 without regard to who contributed more to its acquisition.

This Bill and the Marriage Bill are expected to change matrimonial unions by outlawing forced marriage and wife inheritance while embracing come-we-stay unions. The latter also makes the payment of dowry optional.

But property that is inherited or held in trust will not be part of matrimonial property. The Bill says matrimonial property is all those things that are acquired during the marriage and which the spouses have said clearly or implied are matrimonial property.

The Bill allows a couple to have an agreement on who owns what before or during the marriage. If one spouse incurred debt before marriage, the other will not be expected to repay it single-handedly.

The Bill also sets out how property in a polygamous marriage should be shared, potentially putting a stop to the endless court dramas in such families.

It protects property acquired before marriage and says any debts incurred by a spouse before marriage relating to property shall, after marriage, remain the responsibility of the partner who incurred the debt.

However, if the two partners agree that it is a matrimonial property then they will be equally liable.

A second wife would be entitled to an equal share of property acquired after her marriage so long as she makes a contribution to its acquisition.

“Any matrimonial property acquired by the man and the first wife shall be owned equally by the man and the first wife only; if the property was acquired before the man married the second wife the same will apply to any subsequent wives,” says the Bill.

But even the first wife will have to make a contribution to any wealth she finds in the home as it is not automatic that she becomes co-owner of such property.

Unless both spouses agree that any property either of them had acquired before their marriage be entered into a matrimonial basket, each has the right to keep such wealth separately.

Also, the new law allows a woman, as well as the man, the right to own separately from what is agreed upon to be matrimonial property. Such property may have been inherited, a fact that seems to put women at a disadvantage.

The Marriage Bill provides that one does not have to pay dowry to get married, but recognises dowry payment by those who are capable of doing so.

It also states clearly that dowry will not be recovered in the event that the marriage collapses.

The Bill also allows the bridegroom and the bride to decide whether their marriage will remain monogamous or become polygamous at some stage, so long as they both consent in writing.

The Bill further grants a widow the right to marry a person of her choice — a clear attempt to eradicate the culture of forced wife inheritance practised among some Kenyan communities.

It also blocks the marriage of a person to his step-mother, a practice which still prevails in parts of the country, and further bars one from marrying an adopted son or daughter.

The Bill seeks to outlaw child marriages by setting the minimum age for marriage at 18 years.

Under the Marriage Bill, marriages will be monogamous or “potentially” polygamous where the man could marry more wives without divorcing the first wife.

Couples planning to marry will give a notice of their intention to the registrar of marriages between three weeks to three months of the intended marriage.

Marriages contracted under either customary or Islamic law are deemed polygamous or potentially polygamous.

In all other cases, marriages are presumed to be monogamous meaning that those cohabiting have to agree to have monogamous unions.

The Bill also deems a marriage null and void if one of the parties is found to have been insane, drunk or under the influence of drugs at the time of consenting to the marriage.

The marriage will also be declared null and void if it was conducted in the absence of the bride or the bridegroom or where either party was not capable of consummating it and has remained in that state ever since.

The Bill recognises marriages under the Islamic and the Hindu faiths while also allowing the registration of customary marriages as opposed to the current situation where no Act of Parliament provides for such marriages.

The Bill provides that where the parties are separated, either spouse shall maintain the other spouse. In the current laws, the husband has a duty to maintain a needy wife, but there is no provision for the wife to maintain a needy husband.

The Bill also allows a man to borrow money on the strength of his wife’s finances and vice-versa, so long as the money is to be used to cater for the family’s needs.

The Bill lists the grounds for divorce as including proven cases of adultery, cruelty, neglect and separation or desertion for at least two years.