Girls under the age of 18 will no longer legally enter into marriages, while marrying off minors will become a criminal offence under a new law that will be introduced in Parliament soon.

Interestingly, the new Marriages Act, which will consolidate the country’s two marriage laws — the Marriages Act 5:11 and the Customary Marriages Act — will decriminalise the deliberate transmission of HIV.
Although current laws, through Section 22 (1) of the Marriages Act, stipulate that males can enter into marriage at 18, it allows females to do the same at 16 years of age.

However, the new Bill will essentially align the Marriages Act to Section 26 of the Constitution, which provides for free and full consent of both spouses before a marriage is consummated.

It will also align the law to the 2016 landmark Constitutional Court judgement, which struck down Section 22 (1) of the Marriages Act as it was consistent with Section 78 of the country’s supreme law.
In essence, Section 78 of the Constitution puts the age of consent at 18.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told The Sunday Mail that drafting of the Bill has been completed.
“The Bill is ready and we will be taking it to Cabinet soon. . .
“Among some of the issues the law will deal with is that court judgment which ruled that one cannot marry before the age of 18 — we have put it in the law.

“The other issue the law deals with is Section 26 of the Constitution, which speaks about consent and we need to give effect to it. Effectively, it will provide the minimum age of consent,” said Minister Ziyambi.
“We will also give full effect to provisions that children are not pledged into marriages.

“Effectively, the Bill will outlaw child marriages, which has been a very contentious issue in recent times. It will also take care of issues that have to do with gender equality, which we are aligning with Section 3 of the Constitution,” he said.State media