The government has asked the couples who administered their marriages in the Pentecostal Church of Resurrection Bugolobi, Kampala, to go and conduct fresh weddings because there is no remedy that can be done to save them from their current plight.
Around 1000 couples who wedded between 2006 and 2016 at the said church are facing the dilemma of their marriages being illegal as the church the at the time had not been gazetted to conduct marriages.
Deputy attorney general Mwesigwa Rukutana says that there is no restorative action apart from the couples to repeat these marriages.
He added that these marriages should not necessarily be conducted in religious institutions but before the registrar of marriages.
“Let them comply, it is simple, they just go announce their intention to get married and it is pinned on notice board.” Said Rukutana.
He was responding to an issue of national importance raised by Mukono municipality Members of Parliament, Hon Betty Nambooze Bakireke where she informed the August house that dozens of these couples that are affected by illegal marriages from the Bugolobi based church happen to come from her constituency. She also said that it’s not justifiable to many people that a marriage conducted in a church can be nullified because the church’s registration hadn’t been gazetted.
Nambooze also wished to know which government institutions were responsible to guide Ugandans on the matter were and asked if there is no solution that can be given to these couples and that they aren’t required to undergo the same ceremony.
