A 27-year-old man on Tuesday morning revealed in a Lusaka Court that his wife has been charging him (Sh11,900) per sexual encounter as risk allowance because he is HIV positive and she’s not.
James Kasunka of John Howard, a compound south of Lusaka, revealed this in a case in which his wife Sela Temba sued him for divorce, 24, before Senior Court Magistrate Hilda Choonya.
The court heard that the duo got married in 2005 and has two children together. Kasunka, who has objected to the divorce application, narrated that since he tested positive to the virus that causes AIDS in 2010, his wife has been giving him a hard time in the bedroom
“Initially, she used to allow me to sleep with her using a condom. But with time, she started refusing. When I asked why, she said it was too risky sleeping with me with or without a condom. She then said that if I wanted to sleep with her, I should be ready to pay her K750,000 (Sh11,400) per encounter. This money, according to her is risk allowance,” said Kasunka.
Kasunka told the court that because of his strong sexual drive, which is allegedly worsened by the anti-retroviral drugs he takes, he had been forced to have sex with Temba very often and has ended up in serious debt, which she plans to deduct from his terminal benefits once the monies have been released.
“I owe my wife millions of Kwacha in sex allowance arrears. I wasn’t paying because I was retrenched when my health condition worsened. So, she told me that she will get her money when my terminal benefits are out,” said the soft-spoken Kasunka.
But Kasunka told the court that he does not want to part ways with Temba because he still loves her.
Earlier, Temba had told the court that she wanted to divorce Kasunka because he maintained a string of girl friends despite being HIV-positive. She said she found it difficult to care and love someone who neither cared nor loved himself.
“This man you are seeing here is HIV positive,” she told the court. “But he has an ‘I don’t care’ attitude. He still has about five girl friends. He is re-infecting himself. All the money he was given after he was retrenched, he spent it on prostitutes,” Temba said.
During cross examination, Temba acknowledged charging Kasunka K750, OOO (Sh11,400) per sexual encounter as risk allowance but was quick to justify the levy.
“Like I said earlier, this man has multiple partners. He has all types of HIVs because he keeps re-infecting himself. So, the idea to ask him to pay that amount was a way of keeping him off me and also to save money for me instead of squandering it on prostitutes,” she said.
But Temba told the court that she had never ever received any risk allowance from Kasunka because she was offering her services on credit but has no plans to demand payment.
She also maintained that she wanted to divorce Kasunka because she was tired of his immoral behaviour.
Senior Court Magistrate Choonya however declined to dissolve the marriage saying she does not find pleasure in divorcing young couples.
She asked Temba to think about the matter seriously and come back to court in two weeks time.
Source:standardmedia.co.ke/