A man has told a local court that he married another woman to challenge his wife’s behaviour of drinking recklessly.
Abraham Zulu said his wife was uncontrollable and the only way to calm her down was to give her competition from another woman.
He said this in his defence in a case in which his wife, Marble Shizya, has sued him for divorce.
Ms Shizya in her testimony told the court that shed got married in 2004 and had two children and that she was four months pregnant.
She said that since she got married, she had never lived well as her husband would spend nights out with other women.
The case came before Kabushi local court presiding magistrate Mildred Namwizye sitting with Evelyn Nalwizya.
“In 2014, he deserted our matrimonial home to live with another woman by the name of Mildred and he even stopped caring for our children,” she said.
Ms Shizya said she started selling second hand clothes to fend for her family as she remained alone to take care of the children.
Her husband, she said, would only appear home in some days to beat her and often accused her of having an affair. He also accused her of drinking alcohol recklessly.
She said he got the two cars they bought together and went to live with another woman by the name of Sandra.
She told the court that he only retuned after he got sick and that all his money was finished at the time.
“He came back sick and I took care of him. As soon as he got better, he started sleeping out again,” she said.
Ms Shizya said they resolved to go on separation and went to live with her parents.
She said their families sat together to counsel them and that was how they got back together.
“After a few days, my husband started seeing another woman by the name of bana Mercy who is our neighbour. I confronted him about it and he denied saying bana Mercy was an elderly woman and he could not do such a thing,” she said.
She approached bana Mercy to query her about her habit of calling her husband at night.
Ms Shizya said later she told the husband that she was pregnant but he denied the pregnancy.
In his statement, Mr Zulu said he used to go out with other women because his wife was fond of drinking alcohol recklessly.
He said the time they got married, his wife was not taking alcohol but after some time she started drinking and stopped taking care of the children.
“Her carelessness led to the death of our firstborn child who was on medication but because she was busy drinking, she was not giving the child medicine on time,” he said.
He said it was difficult to control the wife and that was why he decided to marry bana Mercy who was the neighbour so that she could start behaving properly.
Mr Zulu said he did not desert his matrimonial home and that he had told his wife that he would be spending a week in the house and a week at his second wife’s place.
“If she just stopped drinking alcohol and moving around with other men I wouldn’t have married but I only wanted to teach her a lesson,” he said.
In passing judgment, the court could not dissolve the marriage because Ms Shizya was pregnant.
The court ordered Mr Zulu to continue supporting his wife until she gives birth and afterwards the court would dissolve the marriage.
