The High Court delivered a judgment in JJM v JLM (Matrimonial Cause E057 of 2021) affirming the binding and enforceable nature of post-nuptial agreements. The court dismissed the Applicant’s attempt to challenge a post nuptial agreement, ruling that the agreement was valid.
The parties in the case were married in 1980 and divorced in 2024. They had signed a Divorce and Settlement Agreement (DSA) on 4th November 2017, which they had agreed on the manner of division of their matrimonial property. The Applicant later sought to invalidate the DSA, claiming that the terms were skewed against him.
The Court reiterated that while the Matrimonial Property Act is silent on post-nuptial agreements, courts recognize them as contracts and enforceable under the general law of contract. To set aside such an agreement, a party must plead and prove vitiating factors like fraud, coercion, duress, or manifest injustice. The Court emphasized that it is not equity’s function to allow a party to escape merely from a what they consider to be a bad bargain.
Ultimately, the High Court declared the DSA a valid, binding, and enforceable contract and ordered that the distribution of all acquired property must be governed exclusively by its terms, dismissing the Applicant’s Case.
The ruling provides a critical clarification on contractual rights within matrimonial property laws given that the Matrimonial Property Act does not expressly provide for post-nuptial agreements.
Parties to a marriage may enter into an agreement to determine their rights to the property acquired during the subsistence of the marriage which are binding and enforceable.
A copy of the decision can be accessed here
Read more about navigating nuptial agreements here https://cfllegal.com/navigating-nuptial-agreements-in-kenya/
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