A Compulsory Research Report Submitted to Mzumbe University – Mbeya Campus College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement of Award of Bachelor Degree of Laws (LL.B) of Mzumbe University
This research paper focuses on the law relating to division of matrimonial property in polygamous marriage with the view of seeing whether the law protects co-wife’s property rights upon dissolution of marriage. The law governing division of matrimonial property on section 114 of the Law of Marriage Act, appears to confine itself on division of matrimonial property in case of monogamous marriage without taking into account on the fact that polygamous marriage are legal marriages in Tanzania. In polygamous marriage where there are more than one wife, in case on divorce of one wife who remains without divorcing, and hence lack of protection to her share in that matrimonial property. The objective of the research was to examine whether the property rights of the co-wives are protected when the courts order division of matrimonial property after divorce. This research also intends to know the response of different people like legal practitioner, women in polygamous marriage and ordinary people. In dealing with research two methods were used which are primary and secondary data collection. The researcher deals with different question in respect of the problems which were collecting data through interview and questionnaire. This research report involved two kinds of respondents for those who have the knowledge of law and for those who have no knowledge of law. Through responding the questions by respondent the researcher found that the law has not offered protection to co-wive’s property after divorce of one wife this is because the remaining co-wife her marriage still subsists with her husband and is not a part to the divorce proceedings and also she is not covered under section 114 of the Law of Marriage Act of 1971 as one of the considerations which the court is directed to have regard to, despite the fact that the remaining co-wife might have made a substantial contributions to the matrimonial property or even she might have acquired that property in a joint ownership during subsistence of the marriage. This research report derived the recommendation from findings that Section 114 of the Law of Marriage Act, 1971 should be amended for protection of co-wives’s property and to include item (e) under section 114(2) for polygamous wives. Also, the government should improve the exercise of registering customary polygamous marriage and other marriages so as to ensure that all marriages contracted in Tanzania are registered and finally awareness should be raised and efforts to increase legal literacy and promote the rights of co-wives.