Marriage is an institution that for a long time has been respected both in the traditional set up and modern society. Traditionally, you would be dismissed whenever a serious communal issue was being discussed, a bachelor was never allowed. More so, one earned respect depending on the number of women he had married. Monogamous husbands often sat at the doorsteps while the polygamous reigned in their respective houses when siphoning traditional liquor.
Furthermore, in modern society you may not be respected or even given an elective seat unless you’re someone’s wife or husband. How many people have been told off and prohibited from joining certain groups because they aren’t married? Some have even ditched single life because of religious institutions.
However, as the times are changing, marriage institutions are also not immune to change. The institution has changed and is now a dangerous union given that the married couple start planning about divorce early in their marriage, and sometimes they opt to stay put just because of their children. Furthermore, not a day passes before news on domestic violence is aired, men chopping off their wives’ hands and legs, while wives retaliate in a similar way. These incidences have sent shivers among the young people who have opted for single families to escape enduring the same wrath.
In addition, the presence of charms (kamotee) is really appalling, and young men as young as 19 years old have been involved with them. This is why some down to earth men have been turned into errand boys. Some men before they are married are straight forward individuals, the moment he settles with Nakhumicha or Nasirumbi, he forgets himself, his family is turned into his great foe. He dances to the tunes of his wife. At the end he ends up a desperate man after detaching himself from the family. Who will save the marriage institution?
Cheating which was a no go zone in marriage institutions is now normal to some people in the society. How many marriage spouses are battling with divorce cases in court. With the inception of ‘Mpango wa Kando’ epidemic, it appears conservative for marriage spouses not to have ‘Mpango wa Kando’. Shockingly recent research also indicates increased HIV/AIDS infections in marriages, something that cannot be taken lightly. With modernity and changing times the image and the concept of marriage have changed completely.
