Chief Justice David Maraga with FIDA boss- Photo courtesy of FIDA
By E Njega
Wonders will never cease in this country.
The same women who pay female house helps KShs 4,000 a month now argue that in case of divorce the same work is so enormous that it can’t be easily quantified.
I was once almost lynched for asking for house helps to be paid the statutory minimum wage as per the labour laws. Many women are comfortable paying Dstv KShs10,000 a month than pay the same to a house help mostly a fellow woman who in a strange twist will be the one watching the same dstv most of the time.
It could make sense to share the matrimonial wealth thus; husband 50% wife 10%, house help 10% Children 30%
I shudder to think about the welfare of the children in all this. It could be wiser to freeze the so called matrimonial wealth and register it in the name of the children.
The two divorcees can then walk out of marriage with what they owned prior to marriage. After all each claims to have been doing everything in the name of the family.
This marriage debate and 50% sharing of wealth amuses me alot.
Women argue that their contribution as a housewife should count for something financially. There is an assumption which is ridiculous that the man contributes nothing to the success of the marriage.
When a man leaves daily for work to provide for the household how is his contribution to be quantified financially? Does it mean working to provide for your family is no contribution?
This one sided debate must be deconstructed. The housewife contribution is countered by the husband’s contribution in terms of provision. If the man was not working to provide the woman would not have succeeded as a housewife. The family would have broken long ago.
What we should be discussing is what to do with the residual income/wealth when marital enterprise is no longer tenable. The so called contribution by the wife is an emotionally manipulative fallacy peddled by feminists.
The idea that the woman can divorce the husband, take away the children and also 50% of the family wealth leaving the man as if he was never married is a serious injustice. It should never be allowed to happen.
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