Quarrelling couple divorced

MUTINTA MULAYE writes

@SunZambian

The Boma Local Court in Lusaka has divorced a couple that has been married for 10 years after efforts by the wife to get her husband back failed.

This was a case in which Esnart Nkhata, 29, of Misisi sued her husband Allan Mkandawire, 31, for divorce but later changed her mind and told the court that she wanted her husband back.

Nkhata told senior local court magistrate George Kaoma that she and her husband were staying at her mother in law’s house.

“But every time my mother in law insults me, my husband would always side with her and tells me to keep quiet. She would insult and shout at me and often said that house we are staying in she built it with her husband’. So I was never free because it was too much,

“I spoke to my husband and suggested we shift so he gave me K500 to look for a house. I found a house and moved all our things. That evening I called him to ask where he was, he told me he wanted all his things back and said he wasn’t shifting with me,” she said.

She stayed alone at the new house and a week passed with no phone calls from her husband.

“After two weeks I discovered I was pregnant. When I told him, he denied the pregnancy. At some point I went to UTH because I was bleeding, my husband then accepted the pregnancy,” she said.

“When it was time to go for review, he gave me a K200 and told me to abort. The same day, I went to his house and found him with another woman in his bedroom,” she said

He denied her in front of that woman and told her she not his wife.

Nkhata however changed her mind and said she did not want to divorce her husband but wanted the court to reconcile them.

In defence Mkandawire told the court that he wanted divorce because he was tired of his wife’s unreasonable behavior.

“When our first born was three months, my wife ran away with the baby for a reason I don’t even know. We later found them and moved on from there,

 “When my wife started working, she started coming home very late and even slept out one time. I didn’t know how to report to my family. She ran away and went to my mother’s house which didn’t make sense for me because she complained about my mother. I followed her and that is how we moved back,” he said.

Mkandawire said his wife started denying him sex and noticed that a number of his pants were missing.

“I never at any point mentioned an abortion. She’s the one who wanted to abort. I gave her that money knowing it was for a scan,” he said.

Because Mkandawire did not want to reconcile with his wife, the court granted the divorce.