Kenyan men fear sex law

By Muliro Telewa in Nairobi

A man in central Kenya has been charged under an obscure law for allegedly tricking a woman into living with him in the belief that they were officially married.

Linus Murimi Chomba, 35, from Karatina faces up to ten years in prison in a case that has caused some nervousness among local men.

Mr Chomba was charged with living and having sex with a woman for three years from September 1999, while giving her to understand that she was his wife.

He denied the charge, but locals said all of Kenya's prisons could not accommodate the number of men in the country who could be charged with breaking this law.

Although the law has been in place for many decades, this is thought to be one of the first times it has been used to prosecute anyone.

Penal code

It was not immediately clear how Mr Chomba had persuaded the woman that they were man and wife, when they were not.

But an official of the Federation of International Women Lawyers, Judy Thongori, told the BBC that the long-standing law - Section 170 of the Penal Code - was clear.

"Any person who wilfully and by fraud causes any woman who is not lawfully married to him to cohabit and have sexual intercourse with him in that belief is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment to 10 years," she quoted the law as stating.

Ms Thongori said the law had been rarely used because of ignorance.

Police sources in Karatina, 130 km north of Nairobi, said Mr Chomba was arrested on Monday and asked to file a statement about his relationship with the complainant.

He did so willingly only to be told that he had committed a felony, they said.

Research has indicated that more than three quarters of Kenyan couples do not have marriage certificates. The majority of those who do are educated couples living in towns and cities.