MUTINTA MULAYE writes
A local court in Lusaka has ordered a man who deserted his first wife for 4 years and went to start another family elsewhere to compensate her K20, 000.
The Boma Local Court ordered Edward Daka, 33, of John Laing Compound, to compensate his wife Mercy Chilufya, 29, for abandoning her for another woman after 9 years of marriage.
The Boma Local Court has ordered a man of John Lang to compensate his wife with K20, 000 after abandoning her for 4 years and starting a family elsewhere.
Mr Daka sued Ms Chilufya for divorce claiming he was unhappy in the marriage.
In his statement, Mr Daka told senior presiding Magistrate Juliet Mwila, that he wanted to divorce his wife because she was always embroiled in scandals.
He said that she would also always tell him she wanted divorced from him every time they quarrelled.
He said that though he had been married to Ms Chilufya for 9 years, he only experienced happiness during the first six months of their marriage.
“We shifted to five different houses during our marriage because she was always involved in scandals in the neighbourhood. She would talk about divorce whenever we quarrelled. She had said it about 20 times since we got married,” Mr Daka said.
But Ms Chilufya said Mr Daka was fond of proposing young girls wherever they lived and was infact a womaniser even before their marriage.
“We’ve known each other since 2003 and I’ve never known any man apart from him. What made us shift to different houses was because he was fond of proposing young girls in everywhere we lived,” Ms Chilufya said.
“He refused to go to college just to marry me but after 3 months several women started interfering in our marriage,” she said.
She said, “His girlfriend approached me and when I confronted Edward, he apologized and we moved on. Another time, a married woman called me and told me she was his girlfriend. I confronted him, he apologized and we again moved on.”
She said her in-laws shouted at the husband after she complained to them about his behaviour.
Ms Chilufya said she decided to complain about his behaviour to the in-laws after a woman phoned to tell her Mr Daka informed her he was single.
“When he started work in Mkushi, he wasn’t seen at home for 4 years. I followed him one day to try and see where he stayed but he switched off his phone when we got to Mkushi and my son and I had to spend a night at the station,” Ms Chilufya said.
She said that she also discovered a lot of information she did not know about Mr Daka when he was locked up in Mkushi for allegedly stealing money from his work place.
“The police told me a lot I did not know about my husband. They said he had 4 houses and a printing company which was news to me. I discovered he also had another wife, with whom he has a child almost the same age as my son because she came looking for him,” said Ms Chilufya.
She observed that her husband sought to divorce her because he was already married elsewhere.
“This is not the first time he is leaving me. He’s left me before for 6 months without any support and money for rentals. I once sued him for reconciliation but it failed,” Ms Chilufya said.
The court granted the divorce after it ruled that the marriage had fallen apart due to unfaithfulness by Mr Daka resulting in him marrying another woman.
