16 July 2007
Lominda Afedraru — THE Mifumi Project, a women’s rights advocacy NGO based in Tororo District, has petitioned the Constitutional Court to scrap bride price.
In the petition Mifumi filed together with 10 others, they argue that the practice of giving bride price, a key component in customary marriage, is unconstitutional because it interferes with the exercise of consent of the parties to marry.
The other petitioners include a Roman Catholic priest Deo Eriot, Eve Luswata Kavuma, Florence Musibika, Solomon Oboth, James Jagweri and Fulumera Nyayuki.
Others are Andrew Oboth, Fulumra Obbo, Jennipher Awor and Deborah Awor. M/S Atuki, Okoth and Co. Advocates represent the petitioners.
The petitioners contend that the custom and practice of demanding bride price by several tribes in Uganda goes against international conventions on human rights and treaties to which Uganda is a signatory.
The grounds cited
They are also challenging the practice of asking girls’ parents to refund bride price in case the marriage fails. This, they say, is degrading treatment contrary to article 24 of the Constitution, which guarantees that all persons be treated with dignity.
“Demanding bride price from prospective sons-in-law as a condition precedent to a valid customary marriage contravenes Article 31 (3) of the Constitution,” the petition reads in part.
The Article provides that marriage shall be entered into with free consent of a man and a woman.
“This custom and practice leads to men treating their wives as near possessions from whom maximum obedience is extracted thereby perpetuating inequality between the two contrary to Article 21 (1) (2) of the Constitution that provides for equality before the law.”
Mifumi Project Director Felicity Atuki Turner swore an affidavit in support of the petition. She states that Mifumi fights domestic violence among other injustices against women in the districts of Tororo, Mbale Soroti, Lira, Gulu, Iganga and Mbale.
Ms Atuki says in her research has revealed that bride price is major factor in fuelling domestic violence and abuse of women’s rights.
Atuki affidavit
And that she has met many women who are forced to remain in abusive relationships because their parents cannot refund the bride price.
“Bride price has become a tool of oppression, corpses of women are sometimes denied burial unless bride price is paid and men are jailed and their property confiscated in case of failure to pay it,” Ms says in the affidavit.
All the ten petitioners also swore affidavits in support of the petition. They want the court to declare the custom null and void and be awarded costs of the petition.