Wives clash over Christmas cash

By Nathan Etungu in Mbale

The run-up to Christmas can be a stressful one, but frustrations in one family spilled over in a very public place in Uganda.

There was pandemonium in a branch of the Centenary Rural Development Bank in Mbale earlier this week when two co-wives fought, after their husband tried to withdraw money for Christmas shopping.

The two women rained blows on each other and tore the savings bank book to pieces.

They also tore each others dresses before they were separated, arrested and dragged to the central police station about 50 metres away.

Stampede

The incident caused a stampede in the bank forcing some customers who had withdrawn large sums of money to scamper for cover while others fled thinking it was a robbery.

The co-wives now face a trip to court to answer charges of fighting in public and being a security risk to the bank.

Bank sources told me this afternoon that the incident was sparked off when the husband, who is a tractor driver at the district local administration, went with the senior wife to the bank to withdraw money without notifying his junior wife.

Bank officials said that when the junior wife got wind of the plan to withdraw the money without her knowledge, she also went to the bank and arrived before the savings bank book had been presented to the paying cashier.

The bank manager told me that when the senior wife realised that the junior wife had tracked them down, she alerted her husband who abandoned plans to withdraw the money.

The junior wife however insisted that the money be withdrawn so that she also had a share for her Christmas shopping.

The husband, sensing trouble, started walking out of the bank, but was grabbed by the junior wife who also grabbed the savings bank book.

The senior wife, realising that the book had been grabbed by her co-wife, decided to punch her, landing a heavy blow to the face.