A Kitwe pastor’s wife is seeking to reconcile with her husband who allegedly locks her out of their bedroom, leaving her to sleep in the children’s bedroom whenever he is away in Lusaka. Patricia Chipili, 44, of Chimwemwe, also complained before the local court that her husband, Chilufya Chipili, 48, starves her sexually.

In her suit of reconciliation with Chipili before senior magistrate Elita Bwalya, the complainant alleged that her husband only opens the bedroom when he comes to get some of his things and thereafter locks it “Inga bafuma ku Lusaka, besafye mukusenda ifuntu ku bedroom kwesu ekobakoma, nokuya, so takuba nenshita yakupanga ichupo (When he comes back from Lusaka, he will only open the bedroom and get his things, so there is no time to make love),” she said. She said problems in her marriage started when her husband found a well-paying job in Lusaka. She said her husband started neglecting her and spent most of the time in Lusaka without caring about his family.

Patricia said her husband stopped talking to her and shouted at her on matters concerning the welfare of their children. She said when she is sick, her husband tells her that she is demonpossessed, so she should take care of herself.

“When he comes back from work, all the children run away because my husband always shouts at them and me,” she said. Patricia said her husband has banned her from going to his church since last year in December. She pleaded with the court to reconcile them because she loves her husband and would want the children to grow up with both parents.

But Chipili told the court that he would trade his head for a divorce because Patricia is a deceitful woman. He accused his wife of being a liar, who once pretended to have collapsed and that when he was called to see what was happening, he found her saying things which were unco-ordinated. Chipili insisted in court that he did not want to be reconciled with his wife but rather wanted a divorce.

“I will take care of all the children because I do not want my children to grow up with a deceitful woman,” he said. And when magistrate Bwalya asked Patricia whether she agreed with her husband’s decision of divorcing, she refused, insisting they should be reconciled but Chipili refused. “Your honour, children do not grow well when their parents separate,” Patricia said in her submission. She adjourned the matter to a later date for the court to establish whether Chipili paid lobola when he married Patricia.