Tanzania wants national database of married men in a bid to curb cheating

Tanzania goes to extreme lengths to tackle "unnecessary heartbreaks". Photo / Getty Images

Wouldn't it be handy — albeit a complete violation of one's privacy — if you could check a list every time you started dating someone, just to make sure they weren't already married?

Well, now single gals in Tanzania may be able to do just that after a governor unveiled plans to create a public database of every engaged and married man's name — in a bid to save single women from "unnecessary heartbreak".

Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda, the governor of the country's capital city Dar-es-Salaam, said he has received a lot of complaints from women who were abandoned by their lovers after becoming engaged, revealing his plan to help tackle infidelity in the East African country, reports News.com.au.

According to the leader, a database will help prevent men from cheating as once they're married and no longer available, single women will be able to verify that information — saving themselves from suffering a broken heart.

"I have been receiving complaints from women who have been promised marriage by men, yet the men didn't fulfil the promise. I know women who have been paying bills yet the men walked away …" Makonda said in native language Kiswahili during a press conference on Monday, reports CNN.

#Tanzania is to make its database of married men in the country public to help women know the marital status of their partners before they have a serious relationship with them. This came about following the number of women who claim to have been cheated on by men #CheatingMen

— Ōkwóchè (@okwoche) August 13, 2019

"These charming men have been promising to marry them, then ditch the women after using them. This is something that is humiliating."

He then went on to detail a proposed database at the regional commissioner's office in each region where "every man who promises a woman marriage, this should be registered" in a bid to allow women to check to see whether the person asking was already married.

Mr Makonda said the database would include men in Christian, Muslim and customary marriages.

The announcement of such extreme measures has been met with a largely negative response, with many on Twitter blasting the idea calling it "nonsense".

However there were a few who thought the idea would work, with one praising it as a "good idea".

Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda revealed plans to create a database of married men's names so women can save themselves from "unnecessary heartbreak". Photo / Getty Images

Tanzanian news outlet The Citizen reported some men were upset over the plans as there was no suggestion a list of married women would be created.

Tanzania isn't the first country to propose a way to expose cheating men, with a governor in neighbouring Kenya vowing to expose politicians who abandon their lovers with children after an affair.

Mike Sonko, governor of Nairobi, shared two telephone numbers on his Facebook page and urged women who believes they have been mistreated to contact his office with pictures and evidence of the affairs.

"From today all great women of this country, if there is an MP, Senator, Governor, civil servant or businessman who has impregnated you and denied responsibility send me their details we expose him and seek DNA tests when he's still alive," Sonko wrote on his Facebook page.