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Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi

Auxilia Katongomara, Chronicle Reporter
THE Government is in a fix on how to address child marriages as existing laws permit sex at 16 while the constitution prohibits the marrying of children under 18 years of age.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Justice Ziyambi Ziyambi told Senators that Government would soon be consulting on the issue in order to address it.

“We are saying children at the age of 16 can consent to sexual activities, yet, contrary to that it says, when they are under 18, they cannot marry, so there is a contradiction. As I said, this is what we are looking at since I said we are analysing the law and we want to align this with the pending situation because it is ironic to say a child may indulge in sexual activities but cannot be married. So, we need to look for ways of coming to a compromise on the two issues,” he said.

Minister Ziyambi was responding to a question from Senator Chief Siansali on what should happen to girls under the age of 16 who are impregnated but could not marry as it is unlawful.

“We have children who are under the age of 16 who are pregnant and staying with their parents. We are saying there is a law which says the man who impregnated the young girl cannot marry her, what are we saying, are we not contradicting ourselves?,” asked Chief Siansali.

Minister Ziyambi said his Ministry was in the process of consolidating the Marriages Bill to deal with confusion over customary and modern law.

“This law will remove all the misunderstandings because in our laws we have customary and modern marriages, and people are treated differently depending on which law they would have married under.

As a Ministry, we are crafting a law which will combine all these regulations so that when we bring it to Parliament, it will be in a position of being accepted and gazetted by Parliament,” he said. “We are talking of a consolidated Marriages Bill which will outlaw these marriages. The law will also provide for the sentences on crimes committed by people who indulge in that.”

@AuxiliaK