Mom of quadruplets stuck after husband flees home

MBARARA - Parents will always celebrate whenever they receive a new bundle of joy. But this was not the case for Annet Kansiime, 35, a mother of seven and resident of Katete ward, Nyamitanga division in Mbarara City, who gave birth to quadruplets in February.

The mother of seven is living a miserable life after her husband ran away minutes after she had given birth to quadruplets at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital.

Kansiime said that around February, she gave birth to quadruplets by cesarean section. After, the doctors broke the news to her husband, Laban Muhanguzi, a bodaboda rider and also told her to go buy some medicine from a pharmacy. 

Muhanguzi never came back to the hospital.

"At first when I went for antenatal treatment, the doctors told me that I had three babies but when I went back they told me that I had the fourth one - two boys and two girls," said Kansiime.

She added that when the time to give birth approached, her husband took her to Mbarara hospital, where she gave birth by C' section. Kansiime's firstborn is now six years.

"As I was still in the maternity ward, the doctors requested my husband to go and buy some medicine from the pharmacy. When he left the hospital, he made sure that all his phones were switched off," added Kansiime.

Kansiime, who is staying in a rented single room in Katete with her seven children, told New Vision that so far the husband had spent seven months without paying rent. She pays shs50,000 per month.

"When I left the hospital after giving birth, my landlord was very generous and asked me to stay in the house for one month as I look for the next alternative. But since March, I have totally failed to get money. The landlord wants his money or we leave the house."

She further revealed that feeding these children had also become another nightmare. 

"But I have been living on handouts from my neighbours," she said.
By the time the husband left, they had spent six months in marriage but none had ever visited the other's family. 

"He used to tell me that he comes from Isingiro district and that he has no parents. I am also an orphan and I cannot stress any of his relatives."She called upon people with big hearts to reach out to her with any form of financial assistance.

Adrine Kembabazi, an immediate neighbour of Kansiime, told New Vision that when Kansiime fell sick last month, the children rejected breast milk.
"Her children spend the nights crying because of lack of milk," Kembabazi said.

Sheilah Tugabirwe, another neighbour, said without any assistance Kansiime cannot manage to feed the children.