Shock as Ugandan imam discovers his new wife is a man

Two weeks ago, an Imam in Uganda exchanged vows and signed a marriage contract with his ''bride'' in a nikah ceremony.

In Islam, the marriage between a bride and groom is a legal contract known as nikah.

The couple allegedly never got intimate before the wedding and did not consummate the marriage because the bride said she was menstruating.

"I was patient and waited for her to be ok," the Imam said.

But last week, Mr Mohammed Mutumba got the shock of his life after neighbours said his ''wife'' was a man.

Neighbours claimed the ''wife'' jumped over a wall and stole their television set and clothes.

The neighbours reported the case at a police station and detectives were dispatched to arrest the suspect.

The suspect arrived at the police station wearing Islamic clothes for women and sandals.

A female police officer had to search her before she was thrown into the cells.

“As is normal practice, a female police officer searched the suspect thoroughly before taking ''her'' to the cells.

“But, to the shock of the officer, the suspect had stacked clothes in the bra to hoodwink them that they were breasts,” Kayunga District Criminal Investigations Officer Isaac Mugera said.

On further search, police discovered that the suspect had male genitals and informed ''her'' husband who had escorted her to the police station.

Mr Mugera said the suspect was interrogated and he confessed that he duped Mr Mutumba that he is a woman in a bid to get his money.

The CID boss said the suspect will be charged with impersonation, theft and obtaining goods by pretence.

Narrating how he fell in love with the suspect, Mr Mutumba, an Imam at Kyampisi Mosque, said the two met at the mosque where he had gone for prayers.

“I was looking for a woman to marry and, when I met a beautiful girl wearing a hijab, I asked her for love and she accepted.

“She told me we could not have sex until I take bride price to her parents and also exchange marriage vows with her,” a shocked Mutumba said.

He explained that, within a week, he finalised everything and visited the suspect’s alleged aunt and paid bride price.

The Imam paid two goats, two bags of sugar, three busuutis (traditional Ugandan attire), a carton of salt and a Koran.

The suspect's aunt told police she did not know that her ''niece'' was male as she got to know him when he was already an adult.

“The first day he visited, he was wearing a hijab. I even slept with him in my bedroom.

“When she told me that she is going to get married, I gave her the go-ahead and asked her to bring him to my home,” she said.