Since the petitioner in her petition and during the hearing of the appeal she zeroed on judicial
separation, I will also address the appeal in light of judicial separation requirement. In order for
a decree for judicial separation to be granted, there have to be proof of cruelty, adultery or
desertion. It’s not all of them, but one of them, so it seems to me.
During the hearing, Counsel for the appellant/petitioner argued all the three grounds together as
already mentioned and reproduced in this judgment.
Article the appellant was bound by law to prove on degree a little higher than the required in
ordinary civil case but lower than that required in criminal cases.
The learned trial magistrate in her judgment said that the appellant had failed to prove
cruelty. The evidence on record starting from page 54 of the record of proceedings, she testified
that she has been living with the respondent since 1975 and they had business together with the
respondent including the houses which they rent. That they at one time acquired a minibus, but
it was later sold off to set up a business of soap for the respondent. By then she was working
with URA Entebbe Airport as a Customs Preventive Woman. That at the time of the petition she
was not working and the respondent was not giving her any money from the rented houses and
neither did he provide anything. That the respondent didn’t live with her but lives with another
woman in Kitoro and Arua.
That she last had conjugal rights with him in 2004 and their relationship is bad. That the
respondent neglected them as a family since 2004 and in 2005, the respondent abandoned her
and the children in a rented house. That the respondent has been quarrelsome, aggressive and
threatened to beat her up and actually. When he comes once in a while, he just threatens
them. That she has been with him for 32 years and he fights and beats her and that she is now
scared of him as her heart condition deteriorates (gets complications).
She had the problem of the heart before and produced in the lower court evidence of her visit to
the Heart Institute. She stated that the respondent brings women in the matrimonial home and
sleeps with them in her bed. And that the respondent has never been explained to her why he no
longer lived with her. She stated that he assaulted her in 2002. That he last bought food in 2005.
That at the time of purchasing plot 4 3 and the building, the money was from the business she
was running. That the certificate of title was in the respondent’s names and she knew that the
respondent was the head of the family that’s why she didn’t object his name being inserted in the
title.
It’s important to note that what the appellant testified was not shaken at all in cross
examination. She stated that the respondent lives with one Doris and he brought her to the
appellant’s house on December 25, 2005 and yet the respondent has built a house for her in the
village and that she has never condoned that adultery of the respondent.
That when he brought that Doris at her home, the appellant had visitors including her son – in –
law and he started showing off with this woman. He had even fought her (page 35 of the record
of proceedings) moreover on Easter day. He even beat her up in 2002. She reported the issue to