Nakuru Kadhi urges couples to register their marriages

By Abdul Fatahou Laye

nAkuru: Muslims who have no marriage certificates in their possession risk imprisonment, Nakuru Kadhi Sheikh Twalib Bwana Muhammad has warned.

Sheikh Twalib said that such a certificate was a very important document which Muslims were ignoring soon after marriage or divorce.

“A jail term of six months or Sh3,000 fine or both are the penalties to those who don’t have the documents” he said.

Also affected are those who have been divorced face a jail term or a fine for lack of certificate indicating their divorced status.

He was concerned with the low records or married couples with certificates which, he said, can inconvenience them when it comes to travelling outside the country as families. A family, he said, needs a certificate to prove they are legally married.

Countering the argument by most Muslims that there is no precedence from Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) time for certification for couples union or divorce, Sheikh Twalib said that at these times it was necessary to have these documents. “How could inheritance cases be settled in a court of law in case of problems?”

He vowed to ensure that this law is implemented to the letter. He was speaking when he presided over Nikah ceremony at the Patel Brotherhood Hall.

Source- The New Dawn.