{"id":1746,"date":"2021-11-02T20:59:54","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T20:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/equalitynow.org\/resource\/the_marriage_act_no_4_of_2014\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T19:23:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T18:23:01","slug":"the_marriage_act_no_4_of_2014","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/equalitynow.org\/ar\/resource\/uncategorised\/the_marriage_act_no_4_of_2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya &#8211; The Marriage Act No. 4 of 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"meta-split-banner-block\" style=\"background-color:#00754C\">\n\n    \n        <div class=\"columns is-gapless is-multiline is-mobile\">\n            <div class=\"column is-12-mobile is-8-tablet is-6-desktop\">\n                <div class=\"image-container-overlay is-hidden-desktop\">\n\n                    \n                        <div class=\"image-overlay\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/equalitynow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/placeholder.jpg');\"><\/div>\n\n                    \n                <\/div>\n\n                <div class=\"outer\">\n                    <div class=\"inner left\">\n                        <div class=\"split-post-content\">\n\n                            <div class=\"columns is-multiline is-mobile\">\n                                <div class=\"column is-12\">\n                                    <p class=\"date\">2nd \u0646\u0648\u0641\u0645\u0628\u0631 2021<\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                                <div class=\"column is-12\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"title\">Kenya &#8211; The Marriage Act No. 4 of 2014<\/h1>\n                                <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n\n                            \n                            \n                                <div class=\"columns\">\n                                    <div class=\"column is-9\">\n                                        <p class=\"time-to-read\">4 min read<\/p>\n                                    <\/div>\n                                <\/div>\n\n                            \n                            \n                        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n\n            <div class=\"column is-6-desktop is-hidden-touch\">\n                <div class=\"image-container\">\n\n                    \n                        <div class=\"image-overlay\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/equalitynow.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/placeholder.jpg');\"><\/div>\n\n                    \n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n\n        <\/div>\n\n    \n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"full-width-content-block\">\n\n    \n        <div class=\"container\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">\n            <div class=\"columns\">\n                <div class=\"column\">\n\n                    <p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>Sections 2, 3 and 6 of Kenya\u2019s Marriage Act No. 4 of 2014 allow a man to have more than one wife.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Country:<\/strong>\u00a0Kenya<\/li>\n<li><strong>Law status:\u00a0<\/strong>Discriminatory law in force<\/li>\n<li><strong>Law Type:\u00a0<\/strong>Marriage, Divorce, Polygamy &amp; Wife Obedience<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sex discrimination in marital status laws renders women and girls subordinate in many aspects of family relations before, during and after marriage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Women in polygamous marriages may face severe financial loss, including inheritance rights, and potentially fatal health problems such as HIV\/AIDS due to their husband having multiple sexual partners.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sections 2, 3 and 6 of Kenya\u2019s Marriage Act No. 4 of 2014 allow a man to have more than one wife.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>Section 2.\u00a0<em>In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires\u2014&#8221;<strong>polygamy<\/strong>&#8221; means the state or practice of\u00a0<strong>a man having more than one wife simultaneously<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:quote --> <!-- wp:quote --><\/p>\n<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>Section 3.\u00a0<em>(1) Marriage is the voluntary union of a man and a woman whether in a monogamous or polygamous union and registered in accordance with this Act . . . (3) All marriages registered under this Act have the same legal status.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:quote --> <!-- wp:quote --><\/p>\n<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>Section 6.\u00a0<em>(1) A marriage may be registered under this Act if it is celebrated . . . (c) in accordance with the customary rites relating to any of the communities in Kenya . . . (3)\u00a0<strong>A marriage celebrated under customary law or Islamic law is presumed to be polygamous or potentially polygamous<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/kenyalaw.org\/kl\/fileadmin\/pdfdownloads\/Acts\/TheMarriage_Act2014.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Explore Kenya&#8217;s full law<\/a><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n\n    \n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"text-signpost-block\">\n    <div class=\"container\">\n\n        \n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","post_tag":[],"resource_type":[],"law_status":[216],"law_type":[223],"issue":[49],"region":[23],"class_list":["post-1746","resource","type-resource","status-publish","hentry","issue-achieve-legal-equality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kenya - The Marriage Act No. 4 of 2014 - Equality Now<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/equalitynow.org\/resource\/uncategorised\/the_marriage_act_no_4_of_2014\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ar_AR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kenya - The Marriage Act No. 4 of 2014\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/equalitynow.org\/resource\/uncategorised\/the_marriage_act_no_4_of_2014\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Equality Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/equalitynoworg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-26T18:23:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"\u0648\u0642\u062a \u0627\u0644\u0642\u0631\u0627\u0621\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u064f\u0642\u062f\u0651\u0631\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 \u062f\u0642\u064a\u0642\u0629\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/equalitynow.org\\\/resource\\\/uncategorised\\\/the_marriage_act_no_4_of_2014\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/equalitynow.org\\\/resource\\\/uncategorised\\\/the_marriage_act_no_4_of_2014\\\/\",\"name\":\"Kenya - The Marriage Act No. 4 of 2014 - Equality Now\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/equalitynow.org\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-02T20:59:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-26T18:23:01+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/equalitynow.org\\\/resource\\\/uncategorised\\\/the_marriage_act_no_4_of_2014\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"ar\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/equalitynow.org\\\/resource\\\/uncategorised\\\/the_marriage_act_no_4_of_2014\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/equalitynow.org\\\/resource\\\/uncategorised\\\/the_marriage_act_no_4_of_2014\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/equalitynow.org\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Resources\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/equalitynow.org\\\/ar\\\/resource\\\/%type%\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Kenya &#8211; 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