The Rwenzururu Kingdom has introduced marriage certificates to curb early marriages which are rampant in the kingdom especially Kasese district.
According to the new strategy, the marriage certificates will only be issued to girls who are above 18 years.
Girls who are planning to get married will have to register first with the Kingdom’s cultural department. Some of the registration forms seen by Uganda Radio Network, the girl has to fill in her date of birth and also present a genuine birth certificate to the department before she is given consent to get married. The cultural department will then write to the priest authorizing them to wed the couple.
In the past, girls as young as 15 years were being married off without following any procedures, as long as their parents consented. This has resulted into many cases of child mothers.
Loice Bwambale, the first deputy Prime Minister in the Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu, says that the kingdom came up with the strategy because the future of the girl child in the district was being threatened.
She says that many girls have dropped out of school because they have been married off by their parents, who are greedy for dowry. Bwambale also says that the strategy will help the kingdom monitor the number of girls who have been married off at an early age.
She says that the kingdom will deploy cultural agents in the sub counties and villages, who will monitor and if any girl under 18 years is found to be married off, the parents will be arrested. In July, Kasese district council passed a by-law to enforce the same.
Bwambale notes that religious leaders are told not to wed underage girls, as it has been in the past.
//Cue in: “Every Rwenzururu woman…”
Cue out: “...not to wed young girls.”//
The new strategy by the kingdom has been welcomed by some people in the district.
Harriet Biira, a parent in Kasese town council says the strategy will help demystify the belief among the Bakonjo that when a girl experiences her first menstrual periods, then she is ready for marriage.
Biira however says that the kingdom and district administration should also find measures of addressing the high poverty levels in the district. She says that it’s poverty that drives parents to marry off their young daughters.
Moses Masereka, a parent says that the strategy should be fully implemented and not just on paper. Masereka cites the by-law passed by the district council prohibiting parents from marrying off their daughters, but has never been implemented.
Masereka also says that the kingdom and district administration should monitor the strategy every year to find if there is any impact.
In a report on early marriages released last month by ISIS –WICCE, an international women organization, at least every family in Kasese district has a girl who was either defiled or conceived as a teenager.
