Headman drags wife, 5 sons to court

ALTHOUGH he presides over a litany of family disputes at his traditional court, Headman Muradzikwa is battling to contain his first wife and five sons who have caused him a lot of discomfort.

The traditional leader has approached the courts seeking a protection order against his first wife and five sons whom he claimed were in the habit of bringing sangomas at his place.

The visually impaired Headman Aaron Muradzikwa appeared before Mrs Anniah Ndiraya registering his displeasure.

He said he was being disrespected by his family and he longer wanted to see his sons and their mother, Maria Mugariri at his homestead.

He believes that they have devious plans against him.

"Your Worship, I think these people want to harm me. I am now visually impaired and I no longer want to see them at my homestead. Sometime in November last year, they brought a traditional healer to my home and they performed rituals.

"They did not even inform me about their intentions despite the fact that I am the head of the house. That traditional healer buried four clay pots in my yard and in each pot there was a needle, a knife, a red piece of cloth and an egg and they never gave me a good reason why they were doing this,"

"My sons are in the habit of insulting me and threatening me with death and I have had enough. I just don't want to see them at my place. One of my sons is a soldier and he threatened to shoot me dead.

"I am constantly living in fear because I can no longer see. For me to feel safe, I should leave this place with a protection order so that the incessant harassment will stop," said Headman Muradzikwa.

Mugariri on the other hand had no kind words for her husband and told the court that he did not need to hide behind a protection order if he wanted to divorce her.

"This was supposed to be a family matter, but now we are dragging each other to court. We did not bring any traditional healer to his homestead.

"In fact, it was a church service which involved the whole village, but now my sons are the ones who are carrying the blame and being banished from home. I am the first of his three wives and if he is saying he no longer wants to see me at his homestead, where does he want me to go?

"If he wants to divorce me, he is most welcome to do so not complicate everything by involving courts. And about our sons, how can he bar the children from coming to the place they grew up at?" ranted Mugariri.

When asked to testify in their defence, Muradzikwa's sons denied ever having harassed their father saying that his application of barring them from going to his place was too harsh.

They went on to say that their father would always find a way of avoiding it whenever they asked him to address family matters.

Muradzikwa, however, dismissed this as hogwash saying there was nothing wrong with his home that needed to be addressed.

"I used my own money to send these children to school, but today they have the guts to tell me that my home needs cleansing and all other sorts of rubbish. There is nothing wrong with my home and I no longer want to see them there," he said.

In her ruling, Mrs Ndiraya granted the order against the five sons, but not against Mugariri.

"In your application, you asked me to grant an order which will send Mugariri back to her maternal home but I'm afraid I cannot do that. If you don't want her anymore you will have to get rid of her customarily, just like you married her.

"I will grant the order against your sons because all of them are over 18 and you have no legal obligation to keep them under your roof. The order against your sons is hereby granted," she said.