A thirty two  year-old woman of Kalundu township has pleaded with the Matero local court to grant her divorce from her abusive husband of Nigerian origin.

Martha Mwape alleged before the court that her husband, Cyril Okeke, 48, abuses and calls her a sex machine. She told the court that Okeke does not allow her mother to visit their matrimonial home without notice. “He tells me that I’m not his type and that he only uses me for sex. He also mistreats the three children I have from my previous marriage,” Mwape said.

She said Okeke strangles her neck and also insults her mother when they are quarrelling. Mwape told the court that she and her three children survive from her hair plaiting business. “My children have to eat from the neighbours. At times, they sleep on an empty stomach when I do not realise anything from hair plaiting business,” she said.

Mwape told the court that she has lost interest in her marriage and that it is better for the couple to divorce.
And Okeke claimed before the court that Mwape is jealous and accuses him of being promiscuous. He told the court that Mwape also beats him up whenever the two have a misunderstanding.

“She has been accusing me of flirting with our maid and different women in the neighbourhood. She does not expect me to talk or greet any other woman in our neighbourhood,” Okeke said.

He told the court that he loves Mwape and is willing to live with her if only she can change Okeke was testifying in a case in which he sued Mwape for matrimonial reconciliation. The two got married in 2018 and have one child together. In passing judgment, magistrate Pauline Newa, sitting with Miyanda Banda, dismissed the claim because the defendant