FELIX NYAMBE writes
A Chazanga Compound woman told a local court in Lusaka that she is afraid her husband can kill her because he wakes up at night and sits looking at her without saying anything.
This is in a case in which Esther Tembo,32, sued her husband, Kennedy Mwape, 43, for divorce after separating for eleven months.
The two got married in 2004 and have two children.
Tembo told Senior Court Magistrate Miyanda Banda at Matero Local Court that problems started in 2010 when Mwape stopped buying food and that when she had a problem in the family he did not help in any way.
She explained that when her mother died in 2013 Mwape did not bother to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral.
Tembo complained that Mwape always stuffed his mouth with tobacco known as sunko which she found eerie.
When she fell sick in 2017 Mwape did not nurse her and even stopped greeting her.
“Mwape kept saying that I should leave the matrimonial home and that was how I left. He doesn’t maintain the children. He was waking up at night and sits just to watch me without saying anything. I am scared because he can kill me,’’ said Tembo.
In defence, Mwape said that he took care of Tembo when she fell sick and that he did greeting her.
He explained that Tembo shifted from the bedroom and started sleeping in the living room for no good reasons.
But Tembo countered and said that she shifted to the sitting room because she feared Mwape could kill her as he was waking up at 01.00 hours just to watch her over.
The court noted that the couple had been on separation for a long time which showed that there was no love between the two.
The court said that may be it was sunko controlling Mwape and that he did not tell Tembo why he was waking up at odd hours just to look at her which made her fear for her life.
The court granted the couple divorce ordering Mwape to compensate Tembo with K7000 with initial payment of K500 followed by monthly instalments of K250 and to be paying children maintenance fee of K250 per month. Households acquired together to be shared equally.
