This archive report was first published on 17 November 2021.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed a significant law that targets secret lovers in Kenya, popularly known as Mpango wa Kandos. The law, which was introduced by Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma in 2019, aims to prevent anguish caused by these secret lovers on widows.
On November 17, 2021, the President assented to the Law of Succession (Amendment) Bill, which bars secret lovers from laying claim to property of their spouses after they are termed illegitimate.
According to the amended bill, a person not named in the section shall not be a dependant for the purposes of this Act unless they prove they were maintained by the deceased for a period of two years prior to the deceased's death.
MPs who supported the bill argued that families were being broken and left to wallow in poverty due to the worrying trend where secret lovers take over. Nyando MP, Jared Okelo, noted that some women and men emerge only to frustrate families, and paternity tests later exonerate the dead as attention seekers are glorified.
The new law also acknowledges children sired by the deceased spouse as legitimate and can stake a claim in the deceased's property.
Uhuru signed two other bills, Foreign Service Act and the Refugees Bill, into law on the same day.
