BY NOEL IYOMBWA AND MICHALE MIYOBA
A CHILANGA man has reached the end of his patience with his wife, and he says she may end up killing him if police or her relatives do not remove her from his house.
The mentally challenged woman has smashed all windows in the house and though they share a bed, it is not cordial . The couple has been married for 35 years and their eldest is 34 years.
The 58 year old Mubanga Chipalo, is blind and his wife, who had been his helper when they married, is now a source of worry and a direct threat to his life and that of the children and neighbours. She is now a threat and he wants her out of his wife. The most recent attack left him with a swollen thumb, after she sunk her teeth into him.
As we sat down for the interview, his wife was shouting and spewing insults not directed at anyone in particular but the husband has had enough of the nightmare.
In an emotional interview, Mr Mubanga said he had reached the end of patience and if she attacks him again as she has been doing, she may kill him unless he retaliates.
He said, though he was blind, he would rather struggle alone than being burdened with a woman after his own life.
House number F192 Musamba township, is not a happy home. The children are scared of their mother and the neihbours are also wary of her. The don’t visit.
Mr Mubanga first reached out to the Daily Nation through email in which he poured out his frustrations and pleading with society, especially police and in-laws to help him remove the woman from his life before she either kills him or he harms her.
“ Please editor place my article into your newspaper before I harm the mentally disturbed wife here in Chilanga.
I am a retired blind Zambian married to a mentally disturbed wife. The go between who facilitated my marriage never followed the procedure of studying her character before she was brought to Chilanga Lusaka. During her childhood she was restricted from eating chicken and pork meat which she started buying whenever I gave her money on paydays. As a result she has become violent, rude to the neighbours, the children including me, the husband. She insults neighbours, the children including me; she throws stones at neighbour’s houses including me. I have taken her to Chainama hospital several times whenever she gets better she stops taking the medicines and becomes disturbed even before.
During rainy season she burns plastic papers on an electric stove in the name of roasting maize, when she burned my passport, my qualifications and briefcases she felt happy. Whenever she is sober minded and I ask her why she stops taking medicines she replies saying “I can’t go on taking bitter Chainama medicines. After all this is a family problem and besides that my relatives shout everyday in Kasama therefore the solution to this problem is to end our marriage. I am ready to be living alone.
” When she’s listening to the radio and a lady speaks out she becomes furious and accuses me of having those women as my girlfriends and prostitutes. During night time she wakes me with slaps whenever a lady on a panel says something on the radio program.
However one day I may retaliate and for sure she will in trouble. This lady is not fit to live in society therefore before one of us dies, I am pleading to ministry of Community especially the department of psychosocial counselling to find a place for her where she could be kept alone in a special home where she could be forced to take medicines whenever she stops feeling well. In July this year I sent an email to permanent secretary of Community Development and nothing has been done to arrest the situation. What I have written here is a tip of the iceberg. Mr Chipalo can be reached on: Cel+260977490785
e-mail: mubangaachipalo20@yandex.com
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