Following the second press statement released on Monday by Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB), a state agency mandated to register all marriages that take place in Uganda, emphasis has further been made that all marriages be registered with the respective authorities.
The agency says that the person who officiates at a religious or civil ceremony should file marriage returns with the Registrar of Marriages within one month of conducting the marriage ceremony.
In 2015, Statistics from URSB reveal that the number of people choosing civil marriage over religious marriage has increased in the last two years.
To defend the state policy, Mr Bemanya says that every certificate of marriage that has been filed with URSB is admissible as evidence of the marriage to which it relates; in any court of law or before any person having by law or consent of the parties, authority to receive evidence on it.
“A registered marriage is a safeguard for spousal benefits like insurance, pension, citizenship, immigration, emigration, family resettlements as well as inheritance of estates upon the demise of a spouse,” he says.
Bemanya says, “Marriage records provided to URSB by marriage celebrants are used to compile a marriage data bank. A credible marriage data base is a safe guard against bigamy, polygamy and polyandry in the case of Church and Civil marriages. Many people spend huge sums of money contracting marriages to parties that have subsisting marriages and have no legal capacity to remarry. For these reasons above, marriage registration is continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal,”
“Marriage registration is aimed at ensuring that the end users of these marriage records are equipped with evidential value for the protection of related rights as well as to assist the Government of Uganda to build a credible marriage data base.”
The press statement clarifies that a customary marriage can be converted into a Church marriage if still monogamous in nature.”
