Prime
Court dissolves marriage of Uganda’s former ambassador to the US
Mr Dickson Ogwang (L) and Ms Miriam Pheona
The Magistrate’s Court in Mengo, Kampala has dissolved the marriage of former Minister Counsellor at Uganda's embassy in the United States, Mr Dickson Ogwang and his estranged wife, Ms Miriam Pheona Otengo, following a one-year legal battle.
Several months after Mr Ogwang was forced to return to Uganda in early 2018 by the State Department of the United States of America, following reports of battering his wife [Ms Otengo], he ran to court in December last year seeking an end to what he called a bad marriage.
Consequently, the presiding Grade One Magistrate, Mr Hood Matovu, in his judgment on October 8, 2020, said since the two had failed to work on their marriage problems, he did not see any other reason for them to continue living as husband and wife.
However, the magistrate directed that both Mr Ogwang and Ms Otengo bear the responsibility of taking care of their children without dividing property until one of the parties petitions court to do so.
“It is hereby decreed that the decree Nisi granted on March 13, 2020, is hereby made absolute and the marriage between the petitioner and respondent is accordingly dissolved. The parties shall have joint custody of the issues, while in the United Kingdom where the respondent shall have primary custody, the respondent shall be responsible for the maintenance of the issues as she will be entitled to allowances including education allowances provided by the Government of Uganda,” Mr Matovu’s judgment reads in part.
Mr Ogwang and Ms Otengo had been married for over seven years. The two had their traditional marriage ceremony in 2011 and made it official with a civil marriage on April 09, 2014, before the Registrar of Marriages in Kampala.
On December 09, 2019, Mr Ogwang filed for divorce, accusing Ms Otengo of verbal assault and infidelity.
Ms Otengo had, during court proceedings, demanded that court grants her 80 per cent of Mr Ogwang’s property and a monthly allowance of Shs4 million to support their two children.
When contacted, Mr Ogwang told this reporter in a telephone interview that the court decision was fair and said he was now a “free man”.
“I have been in and out of court for the last three months and I am happy that this has come to an end. I am now a free man and whatever court has ruled is fair and that is what I have been looking forward to,” Mr Ogwang said.
Our efforts to get in touch with Ms Otengo were unsuccessful by the time of filing this story as she was reported to be out of the country.
However, in a November 2019 interview with NTV Uganda, Ms Otengo accused Mr Ogwang of physical abuse and cheating on her with another married woman.
While appearing on NTV Mwasuze Mutya programme Ms Otengo said Mr Ogwang would use her as a sex toy after phone romance with other women.
“He would go to the bathroom and do all the phone romance with another woman then comes to finish with me. I was too weak to resist his sexual advances. The woman would sometimes call at 2am. I tried all I could to save our marriage in vain. I even reached a point of contacting the other woman on phone to convince her to leave my husband but failed,” she said.
