KAMPALA | A fiery city lawyer, Steven Kalali, has stormed the High Court — not for a divorce, but to stop the state from forcing sex in marriage!
Kalali wants Section 20 of Uganda’s Divorce Act scrapped, branding it an “archaic, colonial relic” that turns marriage into “state-approved slavery.”
The controversial clause allows a spouse to petition court for “restitution of conjugal rights” — legal jargon meaning the court can order your partner back to bed if they refuse to have sex or cohabit.
Kalali says that’s madness in 2025.
“It’s barbaric and unrealistic to compel two unwilling adults to perform a sexual act,” he fired in his petition. “Sex and companionship can’t be ordered by a court decree!”
LAWYER VS. LAW
He’s suing the Attorney General — representing himself — and insists Uganda’s courts must stop legitimizing forced sex within marriage.
“You can’t legislate romance,” Kalali adds. “Neither the court nor its bailiff can supervise a bedroom!”
He calls the law a colonial leftover that should have been buried decades ago.
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“BEDROOM POLICE” IMPOSSIBLE TO ENFORCE
Kalali notes that no Ugandan court has ever enforced such a decree.
“How would the judge confirm compliance? Who watches?” he asks sarcastically.
He argues that conjugal rights are psychological, emotional, and voluntary — not something to be restored by police or paperwork.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS LAWYER BACKS HIM
Backing him is lawyer Mary Nankabirwa, who calls the law “vague, impractical, and dangerous.”
She warns that forcing estranged partners to resume intimacy could trigger domestic violence, rape, and forced pregnancies.
“It’s disconnected from the realities of modern marriage,” she says. “You can’t drag someone back to the bed they ran away from.”
HUMAN RIGHTS ANGLE
Kalali and Nankabirwa argue the law breaches Uganda’s constitutional values and international human rights treaties, including protections against degrading treatment and violation of bodily autonomy.
They want the court to declare Section 20 unconstitutional, stop its enforcement, and order government to repeal it completely.
WHAT NEXT?
The petition hasn’t yet been assigned to a judge, but the Attorney General is expected to respond soon.
If the court agrees, Uganda could finally delete the ancient “bedroom decree” — a law that, in Kalali’s words, “belongs in the museum, not in a marriage.”
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