Pastor surrenders his wife to her lover

Harrison Olumbe, the ADC Pastor at his home in Lurambi. [Benard Lusigi, Standard]

At around 9am when we arrive at the homestead of Pastor Harrison Olumbe we find him seated under a mango tree.

Dressed in a brown jacket with black stripes, Pastor Olumbe of the African Divine Church (ADC) in Emachembe village, Kakamega county, seems at peace with himself despite being the talk of the town after surrendering his estranged wife to her lover.

The pastor's wife and the lover were caught pants down in their matrimonial bed.

Following the incident, irate villagers tied the man with ropes on a tree in the homestead and gave him a thorough beating. The man is well-known to the family.

"I had to let her go. God will give me another good loyal wife," says Olumbe, adding that "I consciously signed the agreement to surrender my wife to the other man."

He says it is not easy for a man to give up his wife.

"I decided to surrender my unfaithful wife to the man as she was not the right woman for me," he says.

“I am a devastated man after the incident, but what keeps me going is that my perfect wife is on the way, and that is why I cannot agree to resolve things by forgiving her. Even if I do so and we continue living together, she will continue cheating on me," Olumbe says.

Henry Olumbe's wife being rescued following fracas after she was busted with another man. [Benard Lusigi, Standard]

The pastor maintains that his beliefs do not allow him to share a wife with another man, and they parted ways amicably.

"Even my former wife and the other man seem to be in love, and the best thing to do is to let their love blossom by allowing them to live together," he says.

The pastor insists that the agreement and the act of surrendering the woman to another man was a form of punishment for her.

“Everyone witnessed the disgusting act. It is an embarrassment to the community. No man in the area will accept or want to marry her unless she moves out of the area," he says.

“This agreement is one way of limiting and putting to an end adultery because no one will love or want to marry a woman who was found with another man in the matrimonial bed, therefore, it is a lesson, and that is why I signed it,” he says.

The man who was caught with the estranged pastor's wife seems to believe that he has ultimately been reunited with his lover after briefly parting ways. "This woman has been my lover' for a long time and we had only parted ways. I later found out that she was married to the man of God," he says.

After the pastor signed the agreement to surrender his wife, the man in the company of his family members, took the woman and left.

Moses Atswenje, the father to the pastor, says that last Wednesday, he was alerted by his two grandsons that a man had visited Olumbe’s house after he left for the night vigil for the funeral of a church member in Navakholo.

“My grandson told me that they were sure and confident that my daughter-in-law was in the company of another man," says Mr Atswenje, adding that "I went and knocked at the door, no one opened or answered."

"I decided to call for reinforcement from the neighbours and after threatening to break the door, the woman opened the door," he says.

“We were shocked to see a man we know very well sitting on the bed, and after confronting him, he said that he had come to pick up his phone, an excuse we did not buy,” Atswenje says.

Elders called for rituals to be conducted to chase away the spirit of adultery from haunting the two young men who found their aunt in bed with another man.

Residents welcomed the pastor’s decision to hand over his wife to her lover, saying it was a big shame and it would serve as a lesson to married women who are promiscuous.

“This is a big shame and embarrassment to the community. Because the two seem to be in love, we do not want to see the woman in this area again, let her go away with the man for the sake of our next generation,” says Isaac Murumba, a villager.