Flopped wedding: Couple told to settle out of court
Mr Fred Ssendago and Ms Jane Naluyima (C), after their wedding was interrupted. File photo
MASAKA-The Masaka Grade One Magistrate’s Court, has advised a couple whose wedding flopped last month to settle their marriage dispute out of court.
Last month, Mr Medi Musoke, Ms Jane Naluyima’s ex-husband, petitioned church, a day to her wedding to Mr Fred Ssendago, claiming he had earlier exchanged vows with her under the civil marriage arrangement.
The couple had booked to take their marriage vows at Kitovu Catholic Cathedral last month. However, they were turned away following the parish priest’s refusal to preside over the function.
Grade One Magistrate Happy Doreen Kyomugisha has now advised the parties to settle the dispute out of court.
She last week granted them a period of two months of arbitration and they are expected to report back on the progress.
Although Mr Musoke and Ms Naluyima had separated seven years ago without any child, the former presented a marriage certificate they obtained in 2006 and threatened to go to court if the Church dares to wed the couple.
Eventually, on reaching Kitovu Church to tie the knot, the couple together with their entourage, found the Church closed and Father Paul Mukasa, a priest, who was meant to wed them, was also not around.
It is upon this background that a week later, Mr Peter Kulubya, Naluyima’ s brother, through their lawyers Mutebi Kamya and Company Advocates, filed cases of maligning their family and maliciously blocking of the wedding against Mr Musoke.
While Mr Kulubya applied for an injunction to order the respondent compensate the family for damages, Ms Naluyima wanted court to nullify the previous marriage and be allowed to wed again.
But in his plea filed through Kabiri Ssebowa and Company Advocates, Mr Musoke insists he still needs to maintain Naluyima as his wife, arguing that his intention to block the wedding was to prevent another man from taking over his legally married wife.
Mr Musoke added that besides having a valid certificate that binds their marriage ,Ms Naluyima introduced him to her parents to whom he also paid his bride price.
On the reason why they separated, Mr Musoke told court that Ms Naluyima did this out of emotions upon learning that he had married a second wife, which is, however, allowed in his Islamic faith.
Amid repeated interjections between the two parties, Mr Musoke, who is currently married to two other wives, also prayed to court not to grant divorce to the applicant, insisting that he still needed his wife despite all that happened and is willing to reconcile.
Section 4 of 1904 Divorce Act, initially provided different grounds for divorce for men and women.
Men could petition for divorce on one ground adultery(on the part of his wife),while the women had to prove more grounds, including incest, bigamy, rape, polygamy sodomy ,bestiality, cruelty or desertion.
Regulations
The Catholic Church regulations dictate that before the bans are announced, the in charge must have confirmed that the couple have been baptised and are not married.
According to one of the bride’s relatives who preferred anonymity in order to speak freely about the matter, the couple’s marriage bans had been announced in the church for the last three months as required but were shocked by Mr Musoke’s claims.
