By BarefootLawyers.
Masasi has been a driver for Mzee Kintu for a long time. About 2 years ago, Mzee Kintu became the MP for (Member of Parliament) for his district.
One day while they were stuck in traffic jam, he ‘overheard’ Mzee Kintu talking to another MP about a suggestion they wanted to bring to parliament ‘mbu’ to make a law that every person should only have two children unless they can show if they have enough money to look after others. Masasi was worried because he currently has 13 children, and his new wife is pregnant with their 14th child, and he thinks Mzee Kintu wants to target people like him using the law.
Can the government really tell him how many children he should be having?
WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?
By law, as long as you are an adult (above the age of 18 years), you are allowed to get married and have children. The law does not limit on the number of children any person should have. The only thing that can limit is health, age or money.
The law however requires every parent should look after their children and provide for their basic children’s rights like a home to stay, food, education, and medical care and give them emotional care as well. If a parent fails to do this, they will have committed a criminal offence known as child neglect.
The government can instead encourage every person to have the number of children that they are able to look after through programs such as family planning but it cannot make family planning compulsory because it would be unconstitutional (against the law).
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