Marriage, Divorce and Succession Laws in Kenya: Is Integration or Unification Possible?

Abstract

It gives me great pleasure to contribute to this liber amicorum for my colleague and friend James Read. I wish him a happy retirement though I suspect that his hunger for research and discovery into African law will continue. I met Jim some 36 years ago when I joined the School of Oriental and African Studies as a research officer in African law attached to the Restatement of African Law Project of which Tony Allott was the Director. Like me, Jim was then a young student of African law, being taught and coached by the pioneer of the subject, Tony Allott. Again, like me, Jim also specialized in East Africa and in the early 1960s we exchanged notes and ideas and collaborated on research into the customary and other laws of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Naturally Jim took a special interest in my Restatement of African Law in Kenya and I am forever grateful for his encouragement and enthusiasm during the research and afterwards, when the Kenya Government decided to go further than the Restatement and integrate its marriage, divorce and succession laws. This article tells the story of the establishment of the two Kenya Commissions on the subject and asks whether such unification or integration is possible.

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