50% Property Share After Divorce Abolished: You Take What You Brought In, Says Kenyan Supreme Court
It’s over for “slay queens and gold diggers” as Kenya’s Supreme Court ruled that spouses can only take what they brought in after the divorce.
marital property in the event of a divorce.
Couples are no longer automatically entitled to a 50 per cent share of property in case of a divorce.
In their ruling, the judges said spouses would have to prove their contribution to the matrimonial property amassed before sharing in the event of a divorce.
This is opposed to the controversial traditional assumption that one was entitled to a 50 per cent share.
“What amounts to a fair and equitable legal formula for the reallocation of matrimonial property rights at the dissolution of a marriage and whether the same can be achieved by a fixed means of apportionment at a 50:50 ratio should be done in light of the circumstances of each individual case,” the Supreme Court ruled, as quoted from local Kenyan newspaper Kenyans.co.ke
The ruling came after a complainant sought invalidation of a ruling made by the country’s Court of Appeal where the court had ordered him to share his property on a 50:50 ratio with his wife back in 2018.
The complainant argued that his wife had not contributed anything towards the acquisition of their house.
Hence, in its ruling, the Supreme Court resolved that each spouse was to take home what they had contributed during the course of their marriage and nothing warranted a 50 per cent share as it had previously been.-iharare
