Pastor Ssempa Calls for Marriage Bill to Enforce Mandatory Sex

Pastor Martin Sempa has asked Parliament to include a provision in The Marriage Bill, 2024, requiring couples to have sex three times a week, and couples who failed to fulfill their conjugal obligation should be penalised.

He made the remarks during a meeting held by Joint Committees of Legal and Gender, during the consideration of The Marriage Bill,

“For me I think that if this Committee is going to be bold, let us be bold and say, if a wife or husband asks for sex and it is denied, that should constitute an offence. And we can even spell out how many times people should have sex what we call minimum conjugal standards at least three times a week,” remarked Sempa.

Although Sempa commended Opendi for providing a provision for having a marriage annulled after six months if it isn’t consummated, he urged Parliament to ensure that another provision on mandatory weekly sex is include for married couples.

“There is a recognition that sex is at the heart of a marriage union, and denial of sex is a basis of a breakdown, it is an offence. But right now, spouses who are denied sex don’t have any legal recourse. You tell a woman, I want to have sex, ohh I have a headache today. Ohh you don’t have money. The most painful one is when they read for you the list of what you haven’t done,” he said.

He added, “There are times when one spouse doesn’t feel like having sex, but it is terms and conditions, it is a duty. Some women don’t realize that for men, sex is like food. They cook food for you and you eat, but then the food of the bedroom isn’t provided for.”

Margaret Rwabushaija (Workers MP) rejected the proposal saying, “When you talk about the request of criminalizing someone for not fulfilling the request for three times a week, I think other things are likely to come because these women are tortured when the men haven’t even paid dowry, and they take people for granted.”

Santa Alum (Oyam DWR) wondered why women who are the main breadwinners these days should be penalized for refusing to have sex in case they return home exhausted and sick, while their men sat all day idle, only to wait for women to provide sex.

“Are you aware that sex begins during day and early? I don’t know if you aren’t opening issues that won’t be solved because in Uganda today, women are left with the work of being breadwinners, and that comes a lot with the heavy duty so much that three times a day may not be practical because the man is seated waiting for the minimum standards, and the women has been toiling from morning and you want to make an order through the law that even if you have been toiling, you have to come and satisfy, even when she is sick, you have to meet the minimum. So, aren’t you throwing us in an area where you will bring more confusion into the?” She explained.