‘I hope my hubby learns from jail’

BY JOHN KOMBE “MY husband physically abuses me. I have protected him before, but this time I allowed the law to take its course. I hope he will learn from his two year-jail term,” Ms. Judith Ngulube Muteba, 38, said.

Ms. Muteba told the Daily Nation in an interview that, her husband was very abusive. "At one time he nearly killed me, I forgave him and decided not to have him face the law. I thought he would change, but he has not,” she said.

She narrated that the husband, Loston Muteba, 42, even strangled their last born boy child of 4 years.

"This happened when the boy was less than a year old. The boy is now paralysed and is on a wheelchair which was donated by the district commissioner,” Mr. Fraser Musonda. He repeated his deeds and recently stabbed me in my back and arm. This time justice was meted out on him," she said.

The Chongwe magistrate’s court found him guilty of assault causing grievous bodily harm.

The facts before the court are that, around 20:00 hours on November, 7 2017 the accused bought a knife which he used to stab his wife after a marital dispute. He admitted the charge and was sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour on 23rd November, 2017.

Beacon of Sharing Centre, a local NGO president, Mr. Oscar Kaleya who visited the victim described the incident as barbaric and very unfortunate.

"Couples must learn to dialogue instead of resorting to such acts of gross violence. We must be human enough to reason and resolve matters in a civilised manner," he said.

Ms. Muteba, a mother of six advised victims of gender based violence not to keep unresolved disputes to themselves." If you keep your abusive experiences to yourself, you might find yourself in a worse situation," she observed.