Divorce cases are on the rise in the Islam community with 1,820 having been filed at the Kadhi courts in the last financial year.
This is part of the 3,784 cases filed across the country as contained in the Judiciary through the State of the Judiciary Annual Report for the last financial year ending June.
This is an increase in divorce cases as compared to the previous year, ending June 2021, where 3,082 were filed at the magistrate courts and 1,654 at the Kadhi courts.
Kadhis Courts are established under Article 170 of the Constitution with jurisdiction to determine questions of Muslim law relating to personal status, marriage, divorce and inheritance, in proceedings where all parties profess the Muslim faith and submit to the jurisdiction of the court.
There are 47 Kadhis Courts across the country in each county.
Matters at the Kadhis Courts are categorised into divorce, registration of marriage, matrimonial cause, miscellaneous applications, registration of divorce and succession.
At the Kadhi courts, Mombasa had the highest number of divorce cases at 346 against 369 marriages that had been registered within the period under review.
Nairobi had 216 divorce cases filed at the Kadhi court against 327 registrations of marriage, and Garissa had 208 divorce cases against 90 marriage registrations.
88 people in the Dadaab refugee camp went to the Kadhis court seeking to divorce their spouses while 52 lovers sought to register their marriages. In Kakuma there were 86 divorce cases against 277 marriages.
In Wajir, there were 148 divorce cases against 52 marriages while Ijara had 49 divorces against 52 marriages.
The Nakuru Kadhi court had 10 divorce cases against the registration of 41 marriages while Kisumu had 20 divorce cases against 19 marriages.
The report further revealed that Mandera had 58 divorce cases against 36 marriages, and Kwale had 16 divorce cases against 225 marriages.
Lamu recorded 26 divorce cases against 106 marriages, Malindi two divorce cases against 33 marriages, while in Mariakani there were 15 divorce cases against 118 marriages within the period under review.
The main reasons cited by spouses seeking divorces were abuse and cruelty, violence, infidelity, lack of maintenance, desertion, change of religion, lack of conjugal rights, infertility, drug and substance abuse, and unjustified polygamy.
