A Kenyan Man Whose Wife Denied Him Conjugal Rights for Seven Days Has Gone to Court

Image by Andrew Turner via Flickr

 What began like an ordinary Industrial action by some Kenyan Women Activist, spear-headed by non other than the  Wife of the Kenyan Prime Minister Mrs. Raila Odinga, has started bearing serious results, and they are the kind of results Kenyan women did not expect.

 A man called Odongo has filed a civil suit in a Nairobi court seeking restitution for damages he suffered for all these while when his wife, on the instruction of the Kenyan women activists denied him conjugal rights for no good cause. He argues that they were very peaceful, until the idea of a seven day sex ban popped up to ruin their family bliss.

In his plea, Mr. Odongo observed that the 7 days of sexual denial subjected him to extreme mental agony and his morale at the place of worked had significantly waned. He also noted that his concentration level had dropped and his heartbeat which had been normal hitherto the sex boycott was now very irregular and he felt the ban has greatly threatened his livelihood because, his bosses have also noted the dramatic decline in his capacity to meet deadlines and are threatening to sack him.

 These cock tail of suffering, triggered off by the single decision of the Kenyan women to deny their husbands conjugal rights has divided the Kenyan society very dangerously along sex lines. The men are whole-heartedly supporting the complainant and appear ready to bring more such suits against their wives.

 This is the first time a suit of this kind has shown up in the Kenyan legal history. Usually sex matters come out in courts of law as grounds for divorce, but this time, the men, especially those who are not even politicians think, the decision to deny them their marrital rights by their wives was arrived at in bad faith because, ordinary peasants who don’t take any decisions at all on matters of managing society should not have been targetted by women for sex ban. They argue that women action on sex boycott should have should have targetted only national figures and bureaucrats who make landmark decisions that affect people in Kenya. They for example did not see any reason why the wife of a cleaner in a factory should be part of this strike when the decisions this man makes has nothing to do with governance and accountability.When you look at this matter from this angle, you feel a little sympathetic with Kenyan men who have suddenly found themselves collective victims of the 7 day marrital disharmony generated by their determined wives. I do beleive, this is one case that should be followed up with keen interest. Watch this space next time.