CHRISTINE CHIHAME, Kitwe
A KITWE housewife has complained in the Buchi local court that her husband of 16 years has chased her from their matrimonial bedroom into a spare room so that he can accommodate his lover.
Florence Mwelwa said her husband John Kalebwe told her to move to the spare bedroom so that he could use their matrimonial bedroom with his new girlfriend.
Mwelwa was narrating before senior magistrate Elizabeth Sakala in a case in which she sued her husband Kalebwe for divorce. She said Kalebwe paid K3,000 as bride price.
She got married to Kalebwe in 2002 and together, they have five children.
Mwelwa said problems in their marriage started in 2005 when Kalebwe began denying her conjugal rights.
She complained that Kalebwe also started having extra-marital affairs.
“I ordered me to leave our matrimonial bedroom for him and his new girlfriend. So I moved out and now use the spare bedroom. He never even informed me that he wanted to marry another woman,” she said.
But Kalebwe told the court that Mwelwa does not respect him as her husband. He complained that Mwelwa has become big-headed and considers herself the head of the house after she started her business.
“We used to stay for two weeks without sex. I resorted to masturbating to relieve myself while she slept besides me in bed. So I told her that I was going to look for another woman to sexually satisfy me. And so I found another woman in 2011 because Mwelwa used to torture me psychologically,” said Kalebwe.
He said after enduring psychological torture at the hands of his wife, he decided to find himself another woman in 2011.
The court dissolved the marriage and ordered Kalebwe to pay K10,000 to Mwelwa as compensation. The court ordered the couple to share property acquired together equally.