Kenya’s government plans to ban bride-price payments, legalise polygamy and consider couples co-habiting for more than six months to be legally married.
The controversial proposals were approved by the cabinet, but will not become law until passed by parliament.
The cabinet said the bill aimed to offer legal protection to all forms of marriages in the country – Christian, Islamic, Hindu, civil and traditional.
It is intended to give women and children protection under the law.
‘Come-we-stay’ relationships
The BBC’s Muliro Telewa in the capital, Nairobi, says the decision to stop the age-old custom of bride price is one of the most contentious of the proposals to harmonise the East African nation’s marriage laws.
Bride prices are commonly paid by most of Kenya’s more than 40 ethnic groups.
Current customary law stipulates that a marriage is not considered legal unless a bride price has been paid, usually in the form of cows.
Read more at Kenyan Law to Ban Bride-Price Payments
CACLiTA Cameroon 
Wawiye Mbeya
November 12, 2012 at 8:28 am
The payment of bride price is optional according to the proposed law….