Can a priest cancel our marriage?

By Anthony Thiong’o

Q: I am a young woman currently separated from my husband. We got married in Church in 2004. We have never consummated the marriage as I came to discover that he is impotent. We had not had any sexual contact during our courtship as we had agreed to wait until after the wedding. I was deeply troubled to learn that my husband is impotent but I struggled on with the marriage. My husband learnt that I had discovered his secret and he went wild. He beat me on almost daily. He falsely accused me of all manner of transgressions and generally made my life very difficult. Two years ago I discussed the matter with our priest in an attempt to find a solution to my problem. My husband was so mad that I had exposed his problem to our priest that he threatened to kill me. To save my life I moved out of the matrimonial home and now live on my own. It has been two years since I moved out but my husband has refused to give me access to any of my belongings. This includes my school certificates and identity card. He has also been left with all the other things we had acquired together during the short period of our cohabitation. How can I get access to my school certificates and identity card? I also want to end the marriage. Can our priest cancel the marriage certificate as the priest considers our marriage null and void?