Can a court order your husband or wife to pay you maintenance?
Marriage Act · sources read 2 Oct 2026
Yes. A court can order a spouse or former spouse to pay you maintenance if they refuse or neglect to provide for you, desert you, during a matrimonial case, or when or after a separation or divorce is granted. Husbands and wives have equal rights and obligations, so either one can be ordered to pay.
- Where
- Magistrate's court (Kadhis' court for Muslim parties who submit to it)
Steps
- Apply to the magistrate's court. You can ask for maintenance on its own, without filing for divorce or separation.
- If you are both Muslim, questions of Muslim law on marriage and divorce can go to a Kadhis' court, if both of you submit to it.
- If things change later (or the order was based on a mistake), either side can ask the court to vary or cancel the order.
Watch out
- An unsecured order ends when either spouse dies, and any order ends when the person receiving it can support themselves.
- The order ends if the person receiving maintenance remarries.
Who this covers
- A spouse or former spouse whose partner refuses or neglects to provide, has deserted them, or is in matrimonial proceedings, separation or divorce with them.
- Husbands and wives alike: both have equal rights and obligations in marriage and at its end.
- Also someone whose separation or divorce was granted by a foreign court.
Official sources (3)
- Marriage Act, No. 4 of 2014 (Cap. 150) new.kenyalaw.org · read 2 Oct 2026
- Constitution of Kenya, 2010 new.kenyalaw.org · read 2 Oct 2026
- Kadhis' Courts judiciary.go.ke · read 2 Oct 2026