‘For better or for worse’ vow means nothing – Kenyan High Court rules

According to Tuko.co.ke, Justice Janet Mulwa who delivered the ruling on Monday, November 31, said a court of law has no powers to force a broken marriage to hold together merely because the couple exchanged vows.

The controversial ruling was to bring closure to a divorce case of a couple whose names were withheld to safeguard the identity of their young children.

Despite the wedding vows they had exchanged Justice Mulwa allowed the two partners to go their separate ways, saying the court could not force them to continue living together.

Justice Janet Mulwa explained that the famous ‘for better or for worse’ vows were not meant to enslave or subject parties to a marriage to a torturous life.

"In these times and age, it is no longer the saying ‘Marriage is made in heaven and therefore for better or for worse, for good or for bad times-it must be sustained," said Mulwa as quoted by The Standard.

Justice Janet Mulwa further explained that the court did not have the power to bring together a marriage that has broken beyond repair because it has no mechanisms to enforce an order that a couple remains married just because of their wedding vows.

She added that the court can only help partners who are willing to reconcile but it cannot force them to live together against their will because a wedding vow says so unless the intervention of mediators, religious leaders and marriage partners themselves.

Her ruling follows a previous one by a magistrate court in which it dismissed the petition by a party to a marriage for divorce on grounds that the couple had vowed to stay together for better, for worse.

Reports say the Resident Magistrate Faith Muguongo who presided over the matter in July 2015 said that the wife who had filed the petition for divorce failed to demonstrate that their marriage had collapsed beyond repair.

The magistrate also noted that the petitioner did not prove that her husband had other partners outside their marriage as she cited in the petition as one of the reasons for her quest for divorce.

‘For better or for worse’ vow means nothing – Kenyan High Court rules

According to Tuko.co.ke, Justice Janet Mulwa who delivered the ruling on Monday, November 31, said a court of law has no powers to force a broken marriage to hold together merely because the couple exchanged vows.

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