Mombasa man still waiting for refund of Sh40,000 furniture bride price

A Mombasa man remains inconsolable nine months after losing his wife to another man.

Salim Mutwiwa Twota sued Rehema Dzuya, his wife of 12 years, for abandoning him for another man.

The Kadhi’s court instructed Rehema to return to her husband, but she filed for divorce on grounds that she hated him and promised to refund the bride price. Her wishes were granted by the court.

But Salim is yet to get the furniture worth Sh40,000 that he paid as bride price and hasn’t seen Rehema since their marriage was annulled in January 2016.

Salim and Rehema were childless.

Their case began last year when Salim went to court in what was an open and shut case: he wanted his wife, who had deserted their matrimonial home and married another man, back.

Now Salim laments that the dissolution of their union should not have been granted in the first place as he had started a process to mend his marriage.

“The marriage should not have been dissolved because I am the one who sued to have my wife back,” Salim told The Nairobian, adding that he planned to appeal the ruling even if in a secular court. But his family discouraged him owing to the financial strain. Instead, he was told to hang onto hope that Rehema might return home.

That has however not happened nine months after Mombasa Principal Kadhi, Abdulhamid Athman, dissolved their marriage.

Athman dissolved the marriage on January 14 based on an Islamic principle of Khul’u in which a woman initiates divorce on grounds of hatred for her husband or any other dissatisfaction with the marriage, even if he still loves her.  But she must return the bride price and Rehema was more than willing to do so.

Initially, Athman had ruled in his favour, arguing that Rehema committed bigamy when she left Salim in April 2015 to marry Rashid Karisa in Kaloleni, Kilifi County, before legally divorcing Salim. She had also lied to the imam who married them that she was a virgin.

Rehema denied leaving Salim and instead accused him of deserting her for six years.

Athman’s first judgement on November 16 last year sounded like sweet music for Salim when the judge demanded that Rehema return to Salim within seven days as she also did not demonstrate valid reasons under Islamic law or Sharia to justify fleeing from her legal husband to live with another man.

They were not to have sex for a while in case Rehema had been impregnated by Rashid.

Athman also ruled that though he could not force a couple to live together, Rehema could only leave if she had to demonstrate they had ‘irreconcilable differences’ with Salim.

Rehema declined to return to Salim and applied for divorce on December 8, 2015.

“I want a divorce because I do not love my husband,” said Rehema, adding that reconciliation with Salim was impossible.

Contacted by The Nairobian, Rehema declined to be drawn into the matter.