South Sudan to bar couples without marriage certificates from accessing hotels

Following concerns of declining morals in South Sudan, the government has targeted the leisure, nightlife and entertainment sectors of the country to check the morality of citizens. The governor of South Sudan’s Jubek State, Augustino Jadalla Wani, announced plans to introduce a law that will require a marriage certificate from couples before they are allowed access to hotel rooms no matter their length of stay.

According to reports, Governor Wani went on to say that the bill has already been tabled awaiting to be passed as a law to prevent immoral activities in the country.

The announcement by the governor came minutes after he banned night clubs and restricted opening hours for bars in the country’s capital city of Juba to between 5 pm to 10 pm in the evening. The move, he explains, was to prevent teens especially girls as young as 13 from patronizing such places.

Speaking to the press, the governor stated: “We banned discos totally because what is happening there is really very dangerous for the future of this country. We are serious and we are going to make sure discos are not working in this country until we make sure that there is stability and the young ones cannot go there.”

The shut down of night clubs and time restriction on pubs come after several reports in the media about the patronage of such places by teenagers.

Over the years, the country has seen a huge increase in the number of hotels, clubs and bars being opened and the government believes it’s a major contribution to the rise of immoral behaviour among the youth.

The demand for marriage certificates before a couple is offered a hotel room has been a major issue in Kenya in 2018 when a hotel denied a member of parliament Catherine Waruguru and her husband, Kiprotich Kiget, who is a lawyer, access to their hotel after booking a room.

The Sunshine Hotel in the town of Kericho, 263 km from Nairobi, did not even budge after the attempted intervention of three local MPs.

The hotel’s management told the Daily Nation that the hotel had made it clear and posted on its reception wall that sharing a room with a woman required a marriage certificate.