Ugandan woman told to pay ex for breakup

A Ugandan court has ordered a woman to pay her ex-fiancé more than $2,800 for breaking off their engagement after he paid for her studies, saying she caused “inconvenience and psychological anguish.”

According to court documents seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP), retired teacher Richard Tumwiine, 64, paid for Fortunate Kyarikunda’s law diploma while the couple was engaged.

The woman — said to be in her early 30s — subsequently “turned against the plaintiff, saying she cannot marry an old man.”

“Since the promise to marry was not fulfilled by the defendant to the detriment of the plaintiff, then the plaintiff is entitled to reimbursement,” Magistrate Charles Mukobi ruled on Thursday in Kanungu district, western Uganda.

Mukobi said Kyarikunda had to refund the 9,439,100 Ugandan shillings ($2,560) that Tumwiine spent on her studies.

The court also ordered the defendant to pay “1 million shillings ($271) in general damages to the plaintiff for inconvenience and psychological anguish,” he added.

Kyarikunda neither submitted a defense nor attended proceedings, the court said. She could not be reached by AFP for comment.

Tumwiine told AFP on Friday that the case had “left permanent injuries in my heart.”

“I have been scorned by friends and relatives as a man who was rejected and conned by a woman on top of disrupting my life,” he said.

But Uganda’s former ethics minister and prominent women’s rights activist Miria Matembe slammed the “one-sided” verdict.

It was “a classic case of how the judicial systems are tilted in favor of men,” she told AFP.