A 26-YEAR-OLD second year NIPA student has told the Kanyama Local Court that she became pregnant after her boyfriend promised he would marry her if she agreed to unprotected sex.
But after becoming pregnant and delivering the couple’s child, Mirriam Nkoma says her 30-year-old boyfriend Joshua Mwenda has not only failed to honor the marriage promise but he does also not provide financial support for the child.
Mirriam a resident of Makeni Konga in Lusaka has now sued Mwenda in the Kanyama Local Court for child support.
“He doesn’t support his child yet his a manager at the company he works, that’s why I have brought him here so that you can straighten him up,” Mirriam told the court.
Mwenda is a manager at Li Tung Marketing Company.
Miriam testified that Mwenda convinced her that if she became pregnant for him, he would marry her and therefore she agreed to unprotected sex with him.
“This man has two children from two other women and my child is his third child I just discovered these children two weeks ago but that’s his problem, me I just want him to support his child, he works and he’s a manager at the company he works for let him be responsible,” Mirriam said.
Mirriam vowed to continue pressuring Mwenda to provide support of the child because she did “not make the baby alone.”
In his defense Mwenda denied failing to support his child, explaining that he only stopped supporting the child because Mirriam’s parents prevented him from seeing the baby.
Mwenda explained that Mirriam’s parents had been threatening to kill him for impregnating their child and that they don’t want him near their child.
“But how can I continue to support a child I have no access to, her and her parents have continued to threaten me over this girl that’s why I stopped, besides this girl has on three different occasions said I’m not the real father to the child and that she sleeps around at school because she is a sex addict whom I fail to satisfy,” Mwenda told the court.
He said said he was currently mobilising funds to carry out a DNA test to accertain the true partenity of the child and possibly free himself from the “torture” he has endured since meeting Mirriam.
Ruling on the matter, Magistrate Mbukwanu Matalaka ordered Mwenda to pay K500 monthly as child support until a DNA test proves that he is not the father of the child.
The Magistrate also ruled that any other additional expenses of the child were Mwenda’s responsibility.
Magistrate Matalaka warned that should the DNA test prove that Mwenda was not the real father of the child, Mirriam and her family could be charged with extortion.
The court also ordered Mirriam and her family to stop threatening Mwenda.
©Kalemba September 9, 2020
