Mombasa woman married to two men granted divorce but ordered to return dowry

KENYA: The wish of a Mombasa woman who has been married to two men to be rescued from her loveless first marriage by the court was granted Thursday. However, Rehema Dzuya was ordered to return the Sh40,000 furniture her husband gave her as dowry.

But her husband, Salim Twota opposed the ruling. “I am not satisfied with the ruling of the Kadhi Court, which seems to favour my wife,” he said. He announced that he would appeal the annulment of his marriage to Rehema in the secular High Court because “I still love her.”

Rehema said nothing and showed no emotions. She simply walked away from Salim when he tried to hand a copy of the judgement to her. The court ruled that in order for the dissolution of marriage to be lawful under Islamic law, Rehema must return furniture that Salim gave her as dowry when they got married 12 years ago.

Mombasa Principal Kadhi Abdulhamin Athman dissolved the marriage, saying it was no longer tenable for Rehema and Salim to live together.

ISLAMIC LAW

The marriage was dissolved under the Islamic law principle of Khul’u, where a woman can initiate divorce proceedings on grounds of hatred for her husband or any other dissatisfaction with the marriage, even if he still loves her. But she must return the dowry or ‘mahr’ given by her husband during marriage. However, there is a dispute over Salim’s dowry because Rehema claimed that Twota never paid the furniture as dowry. But Salim claimed he did but sold the original furniture and replaced it with another set.

The troubled marriage and estrangement between the couple has been subject of debate in Mombasa since she left him in April last year to marry a second man, Rashid Karisa of Kaloleni in Kilifi. Salim sued Rehema in October last year, accusing her of abandoning him to marry Rashid before divorcing him legally.

Rehema denied leaving Salim and instead accused him of deserting her for six years. The two, who been married for 12 years, have no children.

On October 22 last year, the Kadhi Court found that Rehema had committed bigamy for marrying Rashid before divorcing Salim in accordance with Islamic law or sharia.

FALSE CLAIMS

It ruled that Rehema falsely claimed to be a virgin to the imam who united her to Rashid in the second marriage. The Kadhi nullified the marriage between Rehema and Rashid and said he (Salim) was free to press bigamy charges against her.

In the ruling, Abdulhamin ordered Rehema to return to Salim’s house but also forbade them from having sex for some time so that the paternity of any baby arising from her stay away from Salim would not be attributed to him.

But Rehema declined to go back to Salim’s house, saying she no longer loved him, after which she applied for divorce, which was granted Thursday.