The emerging alternative to polygamy in rongo town, kenya

Extra-marital affairs are a common phenomenon in marriages in Rongo town, Kenya. Extra-marital affairs are an emerging alternative to polygamy. Formal polygamous marriages are diminishing and are being replaced by extra-marital affairs. Men and women prefer to keep other sexual partners besides their legitimate spouses for convenience. In Rongo town, Kenya, these sexual partners are referred to as side dish or ‘mpango wa kando’in common parlance. The study found out that the prevalent nature of extra marital affairs in Rongo town is emotional sexual affairs and transactional affairs. Generally, communication breakdown has been discussed as one of the major causes of extra-marital affairs. However, this study established that the cause of extra-marital affairs in Rongo town is the shift of communication due to family roles. The study also found out that men engaged in extra-marital affairs for sexual pleasure and for adventure while women engaged in extra-marital affairs to seek love and money. The study found out that men and women experienced positive and negative consequences as a result of extra-marital affairs. In regard to attitude towards extra-marital affairs, the study established that men felt that extra marital affairs were necessary while women felt they were necessary but evil. This study adopted a mixed approach in the generation and analysis of data. The study employed case study as the research design. It applied questionnaires and interviews as data generation techniques. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that programmatic guidance and counseling that enables couples to secure and sustain their marriages should be put in place by expert organizations. The continuous guidance and counseling should focus on the changing roles in marriage and communication in marriage