You are pushing your wife into another man’s arms, court warns truck driver
By Charles Musonda
A MATERO court has reluctantly put a troubled 13-year marriage back together after a truck driver who padlocks his money in a trunk and moves around with the key in his pocket promised to loosen his grip on the family finances and become a better husband.
Matero Local Court Magistrate Kafula Ngoma reconciled Mildred Malwa, 40, of Garden House area, with her husband Chrispin Muchindu, 51, a truck driver but not before delivering a blunt warning to both parties .
Magistrate Ngoma advised Muchindu to start sharing money with his wife and ordered Malwa to stop helping herself to cash from the house without the knowledge of her husband.
“It is wrong to get what you haven’t been given…but what is bad is the issue of fighting in marriage, it is better to divorce alive, work on your love, we are not happy to end marriages,” Justice Ngoma said.
Malwa had sued Muchindu before for marriage reconciliation.
In her testimony, Malwa said Muchindu was a violent husband and that she did not know how much he was getting as a salary in the 13 years that they had have lived together.
She accused Muchindu of locking his money in a trunk and moving around with the key.
Malwa testified that whenever he came home from months on the road, Muchindu would sleep in his boxer shorts locally known as bombasa and showed no interest in her conjugal needs.
She told the court that Muchindu’s violence had already cost her a tooth after he smashed a stool into her mouth, and that he had previously attacked her with a breakable dog toy and a pressing iron in separate incidents that left her wounded and terrified in her own home.
Malwa told the court that the most frightening episode came when Muchindu accused her of stealing his US$1,400 and came at her with a screwdriver, forcing her to flee the matrimonial home in fear for her life.
Malwa said the couple was going for months without sex.
In his defence, Muchindu admitted that Malwa had taken US$700, which she used to pay school fees for her child from a previous relationship and to carry out works on her mother’s grave before returning the remainder.
He told the court he was prepared to transform into a better husband.
Muchindu said he still loved Malwa and had already stopped beating her.
Passing judgment, Justice Ngoma urged Muchindu to give his wife some money for her personal use despite him buying all the home needs, and that he should care to quench her thirst for marital sex.
Justice Ngoma said Muchindu risked having Malwa commit adultery as her blood was still running if he continued denying her sex.
She urged Malwa to come back to court and sue for divorce if Muchindu resorted to violence again, saying a number of people were dying as a result of marital violence.
