Woman ordered to pay Sh348,000 after failing to marry man who footed education bill
A court in western Uganda has dismissed an application from a woman who sought to overturn a ruling where she was told to pay Ush10.4 million (about Ksh348,000) damages for breaching a marriage promise to a man who had paid her college tuition.
The Kanungu Magistrate Court had last month found that Ms Fortunate Kyarikunda, a law enforcement officer, breached a 2018 promise to marry Mr Richard Tumwine, a local teacher. He had paid her fees to study for a diploma in Law on the understanding that she would be his future wife, the court heard.
Mr Richard Tumwine. His fiancee had rejected his marriage proposal on grounds that he was too old.
Photo credit: Robert Ruhereza | Monitor
Yesterday, Magistrate Asanasio Mukobi ruled that Ms Kyarikunda’s application could not stand since she had forged signatures and altered her evidence during amendment.
“The application is dismissed with no costs awarded,” Mr Mukobi ruled.
Ms Kyarikunda, who was not in court, was represented by her lawyers from M/s Nasike & Company Advocates, who said they were not satisfied with the court ruling and would appeal.
“Whereas Mr Richard Tumwiine’s story was heard, no one has ever heard from our client and yet people continue to judge her wrongly. We shall appeal because all we want is for our client to be heard,” Ms Sarah Nakike, a lawyer representing Ms Kyarikunda, said.
Ms Kyarikunda said she was not duly served with summons to file her defence.
Mr Erasmus Nabimanya, who was representing Mr Tumwiine, welcomed the court’s decision but said they should have been awarded with costs of the suit.
“While we are happy that the filed application was dismissed, court did not award us costs yet we spent a lot of money. In consultation with my client, we shall consider