Medical experts say, sometimes
impotence is temporary. Activists say the law is lacking
in many aspects.
This might promote sex before marriage, rendering the
law redundant because if you prove impotent before
marriage, the marriage may not take place. |
WHAT IS THE CHURCH’S POSITION?
Rev. Fr. Larry Kanyike, the Chaplain of St. Augustine
Chapel, Makerere University says if a man is discovered
to be impotent before marriage, the marriage never takes
place.
So divorce over impotence cannot arise. You must stay
together and uphold the marriage vows in good and bad.
Marriage is for better or for worse.
Kanyike says if a couple seeks to separate, the only way
they can do that is through facing a marriage tribunal
which has to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the
couple never met the conditions of marriage.
If they were married by a cleric, they cannot divorce
because at the time they are wed, the two would have
been deemed to have met all the marital conditions.
Pastor Martin Ssempa thinks the clause is like
scratching where it is not itching. He argues that
impotence is not the major problem in the country or the
major cause of divorce.
“We just have radical women activists whose
relationships are in chaos. Their marriages have fallen
apart and they are pushing for unrealistic laws to kill
the institution of marriage.
How do you prove that a man is impotent?” Ssempa says
someone should not break up a family because of
impotence because an erectile dysfunction can be
temporary. |