KAMPALA, Dec 10 (AFP) - A bill before the Ugandan parliament requires men in the country wishing to become polygamous to first prove they have enough wealth to cater for more than one wife, parliament spokesman Kagole Kivumbi said Wednesday.

"For Muslims and customary marriages, where one is allowed more than one wife, a man will be required to prove that he has enough money to take on another wife under a proposed Domestic Relations bill, now before parliament," Kivumbi told AFP by telephone.

The bill seeks to reform and consolidate the law relating to marriage, separation and divorce but also take Uganda's polygamous culture into consideration.

According to the bill, a man who wishes to marry another wife will only have to apply to the district registrar of marriages.

"But he must show proof that he is economically capable of maintaining his wives and children before he can take on another woman," Kivumbi said.

"The man will be required to show that he will provide for a separate matrimonial home for the subsequent wife, except in exceptional circumstances, where the parties including the current wife or wives, have agreed to live together in the same home," Kivumbi said.

"The man will also have to prove that he is capable of giving the same treatment and love to all the wives.

"The law will outlaw dowry payment to the girl's parents as a pre-requisite before marriage, saying consent of a man and woman will be enough."

Where marriage gifts have been given by any party to a marriage, it shall be an offence to demand return of such gifts, the bill says.

The bill also forbids wives being inherited from one man to another which has in the past been blamed for spreading HIV/AIDS infections.

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