This archive report was first published on 11 July 2020.
As part of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, the government has introduced new measures to limit public weddings.
According to Chief Administrative Secretary Winnie Guchu, all public weddings will now be limited to 15 people, while similar ceremonies at the Office of the Attorney General will have a maximum of four people.
The government has also suspended manual marriage services at the registrar of marriage at Sheria House, with all services now available online through the eCitizen portal.
“There will be no more manual services at the registrar of marriage at Sheria House as all services will be available online,” Guchu said.
The government temporarily suspended the process of issuing marriage certificates on May 20 due to the COVID-19 scare, after hundreds of couples thronged the Sheria House in Nairobi for the services.
However, the government resumed the process on June 4, once proper guidelines on preventing the spread of the virus among clients were put in place.
When the government resumed the process, only 700 couples were willing to postpone their weddings, leaving a bulk of 1,841 couples. Guchu expressed hope that more people will postpone their weddings to help manage the numbers.
