• He says most young marry when they are not emotionally and psychologically prepared.
• Fighting marriages inculcate wrong values in their children who end up being the bad apples in society.
Image: COURTESY
Changamwe MP Omar Mwinyi wants the office of the Chief Kadhi to form a committee that will come up with ways of preparing couples for marriage.
He said on Wednesday that too many marriages are breaking because couples are not adequately prepared for life in matrimony.
“You should come up with a programme or a training course so couples undergo training to know their roles and duties as wives and husbands,” Mwinyi told Chief Kadhi Ahmed Mohdhar.
“Without that, we will have a problem in society.”
He spoke during the Eid Baraza in Mombasa.
He said most young people marry when they are not emotionally and psychologically prepared and fail to cope with the challenges that come with marriage.
The MP is contemplating coming up with a law to ensure couples are well-trained and counselled before they devote their lives to each other.
“Sheikhs, Kadhis and other religious leaders should ensure there is this training before marriage and the couples should be made to pay a certain fee for the training after which a certificate, which should be recognised by the government, should be issued.”
Mwinyi wants the training to also include how to relate with families from both sides to ensure peaceful coexistence.
But Kenya National Congress of Pentecostal Churches and Ministries Coast director Tee Nalo on Wednesday told the Star the church already has such an arrangement.
“It is not mandatory but every church has some form of counselling for couples who intend to marry,” Bishop Nalo said on the phone.
He cautioned against legislating such training.
“You can’t legislate everything. There are things that you just need to coordinate from a personal level,” Nalo said.
Kenya Muslim National Advisory Council chief advisor Sheikh Juma Abdulrazak said in Islam, there is only counselling, which is mostly done by a bride's mother.
“There is no training but there are lessons that mostly the wife is taken through on how to respect, treat and live with the husband,” he said.
He, however, welcomed proposals to legislate the matter, saying it will offer proper guidance.
“If there will be such legislation, it will be a good thing. Many marriages today do not last because of things that are actually avoidable,” the cleric said.
Mwinyi said some couples marry when they are too young to understand their roles. Marriage is a lifelong commitment and the couple should be well-prepared for the journey, which usually has its ups and downs, he said.
“There is a need to inculcate responsibilities in the young so they don't have those false thoughts that this is the work for girls and boys.”
He said lessons on how to handle money in a marriage are key but are usually ignored, leading to family feuds.
"Fighting couples usually inculcate wrong values in their children who end up being the bad apples in society," Mwinyi said.
“Issues such as gangs like the ‘Wakali Kwanza’ in Mombasa are a product of failed marriages. In most cases, these youths who end up in such gangs are brought up in single-parent family settings due to failed marriages.”
He said many couples do not understand that both parties should own each other.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)