Husbands swap wives to redeem ailing marriages

Christopher Bwire, 34, with his newfound love Lilian Weta, 28, at their home in Siroba village, Matayos Constituency, Busia County.

It is written in the Holy Book, the Bible, that he who finds a wife finds a good thing. So, at what point does a man contemplate swapping his wife with another man’s? Well, this is exactly what happened in Busia.

Social media platforms have been awash with pictures of two men swapping wives. It all started when one woman left her husband with whom they have two children and moved in with another married man to apparently escape marital woes. 

Millicent Auma, who has been living with Christopher Bwire in Siroba, Matayos Constituency, walked out of her marriage and moved in with one Kevin Barasa. 

Mr Barasa and Lilian Weta, 28, have lived together as husband and wife for nearly 10 years in Namwitsula, Butula Constituency and they have three children.

But Weta says her marriage has been unhappy for a while, with quarrels becoming a norm.

On Monday she told The Standard that her husband returned home with Auma at night. Auma was wearing Barasa’s jacket.

No sooner had Weta opened her mouth to ask who the visitor was than Auma ordered her to vacate the house.

Another directive came from Barasa asking Weta to go look for Auma’s husband and get married to him.

“They came in at around 1am with my husband. I was awake because my child was sick. Auma told me that night she was officially the wife so I should leave,” said Weta. 

“My husband told me to go look for Auma’s husband and marry him. I asked him if he would be comfortable with me finding a new husband and he said yes,” she added.

She called her siblings to inform them of the saga only thought to exist in soap operas. 

“My sister and brother told me to do as my husband had said,” she said.

Weta thought of the frequent quarrels she has had with Barasa over the years and, “in the morning I went to Bwire and told him what happened”.

After listening to her, Bwire asked Weta to go pick the children and return so they could stay together as man and wife. “Weta told me my wife Auma and her husband had decided to get married and they asked her to leave the house and get married to me,” said Bwire.

Before news broke that Auma was married to Barasa, Bwire had tried to locate his wife to no avail. When The Standard visited the new love birds in their Siroba village home on Monday, they were so happy.

They hugged each other and sat comfortably on a sofa to address the media. Bwire disclosed how life had since changed positively.

“Nowadays I get all I want and sleep on time. I am happy to be with Weta,” said Bwire. Weta also said she was happy to be staying with Bwire.

Bwire, however, warned that in the fullness of time there might come regrets. “It is either me or him who will regret afterwards, but for now, I am happy with my new catch,” he said. 

Barasa said he was no longer interested in Weta because he and Auma were happy together. “If she (Weta) has accepted to stay with Bwire, so be it,” said Barasa.

Hector Osuru, an elder, termed the incident weird, but noted that there was nothing they could do about it. “We cannot go against their decision, we shall be curious to see how they will be progressing with their new marriages,” said Osuru.

In June 2016, Patrick Mangala and Ernest Anjeche from Shitirira village in Lurambi, Kakamega agreed to swipe wives. The agreement came after it became clear that Mangala was having an affair with Anjeche’s wife Dorine. Susan Juma was Mangala’s wife and Dorine Anjeche’s.

In 2017, two days to Christmas, a boda boda operator traded his wife for Sh500 to quench his thirst for soda. The couple later reunited.