Kenya's legislative framework on marriage and personal laws dates back to the days of the British protectorate. Kenya's Marriage Act was enacted in 1902, the African Christian Marriage and Divorce Act in 1931 and the Matrimonial Causes Act in 1941. Save for some procedural amendments made in the 1960s, this legislative framework has remained in its original form, despite the progress and evolution of the culture of marriage and family life in Kenya today. A thorough modernization of Kenya's family law is long overdue.

The recent publishing of the Marriage Bill was much hyped by Kenya's print and electronic media, sometimes in misleading ways, suggesting that the Marriage Bill, if enacted, would "change marriage as we know it". For example, on 21 March 2009, "The Standard" titled "Bill opens wives' riches to men", while later on conceding: "But the proposed law is not all gloom for women".

On the background of the emerging controversy, the Gender Forum, organized monthly by the Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF) in Nairobi, sought to bring light into the matter. For the Gender Forum on 30 April 2008, HBF invited Judy Thongori, a renowned women’s rights activist and family lawyer, and Nancy Baraza, Vice-Chairperson of the Kenya Law Reform Commission, to share with participants the rationale for the review of the marriage laws generally, and further to provide clarity on the provisions of the marriage bill that had raised most furore. Their presentations are available here:

Nancy Baraza: Family Law Reforms in Kenya: An Overview (pdf, 10 p., 79 kB)
Judy Thongori: Gender Responsive Legislative Reform: An Assessment of the Marriage Bill 2007 (pdf, 6 p., 37 kB)

This forum received wide media coverage, and snow-balled the public debate on the provisions of the bill (both factually and in some cases convoluted) – via FM stations and national newspapers – see "Kenya marriages facing drastic makeover" (Saturday Nation, 2 May 2009) and "Marriage Bill: The hard questions" (Saturday Nation Magazine, 30 May 2009).