‘My wife slept with a boy younger than our first born’

VICTORIA KASANGA writes

A lecturer in Ndola has divorced his wife after 26 years of marriage for sleeping with a young man, younger that their first born child.

He complained in the Kabushi Local Court that it was an abomination for his wife to be having sex with a man younger than her first born child.

Abraham Sichizya a 52 a year lecturer of Itawa residential area had sued his wife Grace Mwamba a 45-year-old business woman of the same township for divorce.
He told the court that the two of them got married in 1993 and have seven children together.

Mr Sichizya said problems started last year when his wife started behaving in a weird manner whenever he came back home on weekends to visit his family as he was staying in Lusaka where he worked as a lecturer.

Mr Sichizya said he thought his wife was just being disrespectful to him because she was doing well with her business as she travels out of the country on business.

“I used to hear rumours around that when I am not around, a 23-year-old student used to spend nights in my house and people used to say my wife called him her boy,” he said.
He said he decided to investigate more about the young man because he knew his wife had no other child expect the children they had together.

The case was before presiding magistrates Mildred Namwizye and Evenly Nalwizya.
Mr Sichizya said he discovered that the young man was a second year student at Northern Technical College (NOTEC ) and that his wife was the one taking care of his college fees and buying him all groceries and other requirements.

“When I asked her about the student she sponsored at college, she said the boy was an orphan and was chased from college because he did not pay his fees,” he said.
Mr Sichizya said he believed her until he found the young man in his bedroom half naked on their matrimonial bed when he returned home unannounced in March this year.

“When I asked her what the young man was doing in our bedroom, she failed to give me a straight answer and just looked confused and asked me why I did not inform her that I was returning home that day,” he said.

Mr Sichizya said he was hurt with his wife’s behaviour because it was the highest order of disrespect and that was why he was divorcing her.
In her statement, Ms Mwamba said she did not want to divorce her husband because she loved him and that he just misunderstood the entire situation.

She said she was helping the student because his guardian could not manage sponsor him so that he was able to complete his studies.
“I don’t see anything wrong in helping someone in need knowing that we get more blessings when we give to the needy people,” she said.
She said when her husband found the man in their bedroom with his shirt off, she had called him to help her fix a tap in their shower room and that was why he took his shirt off since water was splashing everywhere.

Mr Mwamba said she told her husband that she was sponsoring someone at college but did not just tell him that he was a male student until he discovered on his own.
She said the only reason her husband wanted to divorce her was because he had another woman a nurse at the University Teaching Hospital who he wanted to marry.

In passing judgment, the court granted divorce to the couple on grounds that the man was no longer interested in the marriage and that there was no respect in their marriage.
The court divorced the couple with no compensation and ordered them to share properties equally and ordered the man to pay K700 per month as child maintenance.