Kenya’s funnyman Eric Omondi claims he is married to his long-time fiancee Chantal Grazioli.
But there was no wedding. They had been together for more than six months, and that qualified as marriage, he said in October 2018.
“By the law of the government if you stay with a man for more than six months it’s gone, it’s done,” Omondi told Showbuzz, the entertainment section of the Sunday Nation. “It’s in the constitution. So, the kind of wedding I will do will be to solemnise our union. I am a married man.”
Omondi told Africa Check the law was on his side.
“That’s what the Kenyan law says,” he said. “If a man and a woman live together for more than six months they are considered husband and wife.”
But this time Omondi didn’t say he had the constitution’s support. That was, he told us, a joke.
His six-month claim was similar to a change to the country’s marriage laws proposed in 2012. An earlier proposal from 2007 suggested that couples who had openly lived together for two years should be considered married. Both proposals were dropped.
And the 2014 Marriage Act doesn’t support his claim. The law recognises five types of marriage: Christian, civil, customary (relating to any community in Kenya), Hindu and Islamic.
*The views of the above article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Africa Speaks 4 Africa or its editorial team.