On July 28, 2018, then woman lawmaker, gospel singer Judith Babirye broke ranks with Kiganda culture by marrying fellow lawmaker, Ssaalongo Paul Musoke Ssebulime in a fairytale wedding.
The wedding of the two lawmakers then representing Buikwe in the greater Mukono region was celebrated at Vegas hotel in Kawuku- Ggaba on the outskirts of Kampala.
For the sake of those who do not know, the two by culture are strictly prohibited from marrying each other because Ssaalongo Ssebulime is ideally treated as a father to Babirye having sired twins himself.
Babirye and more so Ssebulime being old people and leaders who are ideally supposed to be role models in society knew or ought to know what they were doing was at variance with the traditions and cultures of Buganda but for the emotions of the moment or infatuation they ended up absolutely ignoring that fact.
Moving on, the two by contracting the marriage they were purportedly entering broke ranks with the law since they were already married and therefore not available for taking home.
Ssebulime was by then already engaged and, by the way, married to one Rukia Ntale.
True, Babirye had filed for divorce a year before in 2017, claiming how former hubby Pastor Samuel Niiwo had turned into a cruel and adulterous man, but the High Court had not resolved the matter when she defiantly took on Ssebulime.
Ssebulime too was in purporting to marry Babirye, defiantly abandoning his official wife Rukia Ntale who he had previously married and legally so in Kiganda culture.
Although Niiwo chose by reasons known to himself to let Babirye and Ssebulime be, it doesn’t follow that by marrying themselves, the singer and his new man were not breaking the law on bigamy which simply put means contracting marriage whilst one is still officially married.
Babirye being a professed Born Again, is ideally expected to know that marriage is a lifetime relationship barring death of one of the two parties in which situation the surviving party is allowed to remarry.
Spot-on prediction
Before Babirye and Ssebulime went ahead and tied the knot, Ssebulime’s legal wife, Ntale had begged and begged Judith to reconsider taking her man, but the infatuated singer flatly rejected her strenuous pleas.
Rukia had cried out to Judith to leave alone her man because by grabbing him her children would end up losing their sole bread winner among such responsibilities, but the woman who abdicated her parliamentary seat and fled to Canada defied her.
She had also lectured Babirye on the traditions and cultures of Buganda which barred her from marrying her father, but the woman from Busoga trounced that piece of advice as well.
Left to her devices therefore, Rukia went on and on weeping inconsolably before declaring that the marriage Babirye was getting into would collapse calamitously and that following which the singer would too would weep and weep for many years.
True to her forecast, Babirye’s marriage to Ssebulime has since calamitously fallen apart as we all witnessed and heard.
The woman has since opened up a case of alleged attempt on her life by poisoning against Ssebulime never mind that she seems to have abandoned it.
Babirye as we all know didn’t last her Parliament term. She abdicated the seat in apparent shame brought on by the scandal of the collapse of the marriage she thought was going to last forever and to the detriment and ire of her constituents who she abandoned without the courtesy of giving due notice let alone satisfactory reason.
A few days so ago, influenced by guilt and shame, she stepped out to apologize for what she did and to seek forgiveness from whoever she wronged and had her heart broken.
On top of all that, Ssebulime has since reintroduced Rukia and promise d never to get trapped into leaving his woman again.
Good Lord, fate can really prove to be interesting.
