MBARARA – The Kanungu Grade I Magistrate’s court has ordered a woman to refund Ugx10.43m she had received from her ex-lover to facilitate her education but declined to his marriage proposal.
The ruling stems from civil suit number 024 of 2022, Richard Tumwiine filed in February 2022 against Fortunate Kyarikunda – his ex-lover for breach of marriage promise.
According to the prosecution, Tumwiine met Kyarikunda at Kiringa primary school in Kambunga sub-county, Kanungu district where he was a teacher in 2015. Kyarikunda was posted at the same school for her practice. In the process, Tumwiine fell in love with Kyarikunda and agreed in 2018 to get married.
Tumwiine reportedly gave Kyarikunda Ugx9, 439,100 to complete her Diploma in legal practice at the Kampala-based Law Development Centre-LDC. After completing her bar course, the lovebirds agreed on January 10, 2022, to arrange an introduction ceremony scheduled for February 2022.
However, Tumwiine was shocked in February 2022 when Kyarikunda backed out of the marriage arrangement – claiming that she can’t proceed because her suitor was above 65 years of age – yet she is below 35.
In his petition, Tumwine accused Kyarikunda of breach of marriage promise. He asked court to compel her to refund the money he had injected into her education since he did it well knowing they will end up together.
In her ruling on Wednesday, the Kanungu Grade I Magistrate, Asanansio Mukobi, said that despite serving her, Kyarikunda failed to file her defence – adding that since the marriage promise was not fulfilled, Tumwiine was entitled to the reimbursement of the Ugx9, 439,100 he spent on her.
Based on Article 126 (2) (c) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 as amended, which provides for adequate compensation for victims of wrongs, Mukobi ordered Kyarikunda to pay Ugx1,000,000 to Tumwiine as general damage for inconveniences and psychological anguish.
“There is no wrong without a remedy. Victims of wrongs such as the plaintiff in this case are entitled to compensation,” reads the ruling.
Efforts to get a comment from Kyarikunda were futile but Tumwiine said despite the court ruling in his favour, he would never forget the time and concentration he had wasted on Kyarikunda.
This is the first court case of this nature in the Kanungu district.
