Family Division of the High Court judge Celia Nagawa has dissolved the marriage of Radio One and Akaboozi ku biiri boss and his wife as top UPDF Officer and witchcraft are cited to have caused troubles for the love birds.
The judge agreed with Brian Mochorwa Mariaria, an accountant working with Radio One and also a farmer that his marriage with his wife Fortunate Komugisha could no longer stand and dissolution was the only option to save the petitioner and defendant’s lives.
“Therefore, I will not hesitate to release whoever wants to leave for a justified cause than to keep a shell house. In the instant case, the Petitioner testified that during the subsistence of the marriage, it was marred with domestic violence, cruelty and he lived on the edge,” the judge stated.
She added that in divorce proceedings, court deals with people who are often feel chaotic emotions and powerful passions.
She acknowledged the feelings of damage, failure, guilt and anger that divorce typically creates, noting that if there is to be divorce, the law should not exacerbate the bitterness between the parties.
The judge states that to expect a legal system to enable the parties to separate happily and then have a good post-divorce relationship is pure idealism.
She further stated that while for some divorce is a tragedy, for others, it can be the start of a happy new future.
In his petition through his lawyers led by Denis Akanyijuka, Mochorwa told court that he lawfully married Komugisha on 28th December, 2012 at Our Lady of Africa Church in Mbuya, Kampala District.
He added that during the subsistence of their marriage, they cohabited in Naalya and Luzira in Kampala and they produced two children.
He told court that unfortunately one of the child died and they remained with one.
He further told court that since they legally started staying together, their marriage was marred with misunderstandings which at a later stage developed into domestic violence and that the wife deserted their matrimonial home without reasonable excuse to live with other men.
He produced three witnesses who have vast knowledge of their marriage situation to back up his case.
These included; Andrew Mutumba who was his best man at their wedding, Joshua Kisozi and Annet Moraa who all pleaded with the presiding judge to resolve the marriage.
In his testimony, the petitioner also told court about a certain UPDF officer who his wife had introduced to him as her father before their wedding yet in fact he was her sister’s husband.
He added that because he is a Seventh Day Adventist, and goes to church every Saturday to pray, the wife used that opportunity to engage with the UPDF officer at their matrimonial home.
He noted that he got suspicious that the said Afande was having an affair with his wife because he always visited their home on Saturday knowing when he was away.
His suspension was deepened when the said officer started giving his wife large sums of money for no work done.
The petitioner further revealed that because of their misunderstanding, they separated between 2014 and 2017.
After he involved his church leadership, they reconciled.
However, he learnt that in his absence, the wife had gotten other boyfriends, got pregnant and aborted.
He added that when he was away in Tanzania, he was called by their house maid informing him that his wife had chased her away from their home and did not allow her to access her belongings because she feared that she was going to disclose to him the witchcraft ceremonies that she was performing in their house targeting him.
He testified to court that since that day, he stopped going back home and instead instituted a Divorce case against his wife which was dismissed after his former lawyers failed to do enough due diligence.
He decided to file another suit which was allowed by court.
He testified that their marriage has been slippery, narrating how on their wedding day, his wife abused and insulted him in church in the presence of the presiding priest and on their honeymoon, she fumed, abused him and became violent.
He stated that when his wife sent him for something on his way back home from work, she would warn him not to return home if he did not have it.
“One day the Respondent told him to buy a baby carrier and cautioned him not to return home if he failed to get it. The Petitioner failed to get the baby carrier and when he reached home, the Respondent started quarreling and eventually slapped him,” the judge quoted the petitioner in her judgment.
She added that the petitioner narrated to court how his wife went ahead to grab a knife from the kitchen and charged it towards him; they fought for the knife until he managed to take it away from her after breaking several valuable household property.
The petitioner told court that the wife even vowed to steal a gun from the UPDF officer friend to kill him and on several occasions she threatened to poison him that is why he stopped eating any food prepared at home.
She further pined the wife of neglecting their only child stating that between 2019 and 2021, he did not know the whereabouts of her and his son until he came to learn that she had abandoned the child at her cousin brother’s home, a one Otterans Tayebwa.
He testified that Tayebwa called him and informed him that his son was sick and the wife had disappeared.
On getting this information, he immediately left radio offices in Kampala along Duster Street to look for his son who he found at Tayebwa’s home.
The Petitioner stated that he found his son very sick, in pain and was in a very bad state dressed in tattered clothes. He stated that he took the child to hospital and also got him clothing.
He told court that the said minor now stays with him.
Even though Komugisha was served with the petition through her WhatApp number which shows that she received the court documents, and was also served through daily monitor newspaper, she didn’t file a defense and the judge based on the petitioner’s evidence to dissolve their marriage.
She allowed the petitioner to stay with their only son who is 11 years old and the wife was only allowed to visit the son once in the month until she turns 18 years old.
Even though the petitioner told court that he owned a home in Kajjansi, farmland in Wobulenzi Luwero district, he informed court in his affidavit that they don’t have any immovable property together so no order was issued on the issue of sharing of the properties.
By Sengooba Alirabaki
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