Couples must enjoy conjugal rights three times a week, Pastor Ssempa tells Parliament

Renowned evangelist Mr Martin Ssempa wants Parliament to use The Marriage Bill, 2024 to make it mandatory for couples to have sex at least three times a week.

This is contained in his submissions to the joint committees on Legal and Gender which are currently processing the Marriage Bill, 2024 authored by the Tororo Woman MP Sarah Opendi.

“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,” Ssempa told MPs.

This further buttresses Opendi’s Bill that requires all couples to consummate their marriages within the opening six months by having sex. Specifically, section 4 of the Bill proposes that marriages in which couples fail to have sex in the opening six months of their union be disbanded.

“A marriage is voidable where one of the parties to the marriage is unable to consummate the marriage within six months of celebration of marriage,” Opendi’s Bill reads in part.

As he spoke in support of this suggestion, Ssempa reasoned that mandatory sex deepens cohesion within marriages.

“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, and she can be like; oh I have a headache today. Oh you don’t have money. The most painful one is when they read for you the list of what you haven’t done,” Ssempa said.

He added; “I mean, men and women should enter marriages knowing that this is part of their conjugal duty but leaving it in this absentia where the spouse may have different webs in the mind. 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.”

Call rejected

This however hit a section of female legislators wrongly with majority trashing Sempa’s proposal.

“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,” Margaret Rwabushaija (Workers MP) said.

Similarly, the Oyam Woman MP Santa Alum decried the heavy duties shouldreded by women who may be burdened by the pressure to have frequent 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…So, aren’t you throwing us in an area where you will bring more confusion into the society than solving a problem which seems to exist?” Alum said.

The Bill has sparked several controversies since it was tabled in October last year and later referred to the said committees for scrutiny. So far stakeholders including the women activists that have rejected the call to slap a Shs10 Million or three-year jail term on persons found cohabiting.