Nothing Worse Than A Woman Scorned

It is no longer strange to see an enraged woman shoot up from the crowd in church when the vows are just about to be said. The women will usually spring up with a minimum of one offspring that she claims belongs to the man who is about to say 'I do' to another woman. She will stop at nothing.

The poor innocent children will normally follow their mothers oblivious to the on goings, save for two clear facts. One, that their mom is furious and two, daddy is marrying another mummy. What normally unfolds at the altar is scaring. Accusations are traded back and forth about who is cheating on who. The jilted women are usually whisked out of the scene in a split second by the church elders who try their best to restore sanity. Many a times the situation gets nasty and violent. We saw the latest of these episodes on Saturday on TV.

A pastor who was about to wed was busted by not one but by two women and their children just as he was about to exchange his vows with the person he had picked to be his lawfully wedded wife so to say. Most of the grooms are caught flatfooted while others are aware or suspect that the ex-girlfriend or wife will gate crash into the church and cause mayhem.

Some 'smart' grooms will usually station their boys at the entrance of the church with strict instructions not to allow the ex into the church until the vows are done. Others even block the ex-right from her residence. They will flatten her car tyres so that she misses the vows. Other desperate grooms even hire thugs to car jack the bride as she approaches the church. I have not understood why I have never seen a man shoot out of the crowd in church to object a marriage.

These outbursts just go to show how important wedding vows are. I have come up with ten issues that arise out of the foregoing set of facts;

• What is the importance of the wedding bands and the announcements that you hear your pastor announce every Sunday?

• What is the importance of the notice that you will see at the registrar of marriages notice board?

• Could these ladies who interfere with weddings be charged with the offence of breach of the peace- Penal Code?

• Is it in the best interest of the child to drag them into the church when you decide that you will interrupt a wedding at the eleventh hour?

• When can we say that prolonged cohabitation with someone can lead to a legal presumption that you are married?

• Has a time come for the prolonged cohabitation to be placed under the same footing in law like a marriage under an Act of parliament? The Marriage bill proposes two years.

• Can the aggrieved lady run to court to obtain an injunction and or a restraining order to stop the marriage?

• What legal recourse does a woman like the foregoing have for the children?

• In the event the court makes a finding that there is a presumption of marriage, can the groom be charged with the offence of Bigamy?

• What can the woman do in situations where she only gets to know of the marriage on the material Saturday when the wedding was to take place given that the Kenyan courts do not sit over the weekends?

We shall engage in breaking the ten points down in the next articles.