Rozinah Mwakideu, the former wife of Pastor Robert Burale, has confirmed that they broke up because he was deep in debt and a liar.
“I would receive calls now and then from people and police saying Robert had unsettled debts,” she told Massawe on Radio Jambo. Unbeknown to her, most of Robert’s income was going towards settling debts.
“It was a character he had and I kept waiting because I thought he would change because he was born-again. For example, the main reason why I left was after my friend came to visit me and after she left she wanted to sue him. I couldn’t handle that pressure plus other personal issues,” she said
Although her marriage lasted a year, it felt longer to Rozinah because she was unhappy. “[There were] red flags that he was cheating on me but he would apologise. [However] he would fail and repeat [it]. Robert had so many things he was hiding from me in the name of being a pastor...[I was] expecting him to change. I became suicidal in that one year I lived with Robert because there was so much I was going through but I feared what people would say if I left. My mother is a prayerful person and that helped me,” she said
Rozinah admits that she also played a role in their failed marriage. “Being born-again does not mean we did not have flaws. I had so much expectation from Burale because he was a pastor but I did not love as much as I expected. I was not patient,” she said
“I was not a good woman because if I was good, we would still be married. We still talk but we have never met for the past five years since we parted.”
Her advice to women who are struggling to make their marriages work is to not expect things to change. “We had a church wedding and we tried to save my marriage but things were extreme. I have no regret and both of us have learnt [our] own lesson. We were opposing each other,” Rozinah said
Calls to Robert for a comment went unanswered. In previous interviews, Robert admitted he kept his addiction a secret for most part of their relationship. However in late 2005, the cat jumped out of the bag.
“I began to have financial difficulties and got into debt. My prospective in-laws found out that I’d borrowed a huge chunk of money and they told my then girlfriend.”