Hotel proprietor dragged to court over child neglect

The proprietor of a popular hotel in Butare, has been dragged to court for allegedly neglecting his parental duties of caring for the child he allegedly fathered with a Rwandan woman. The Belgian national, Michell Campion, is the owner of the second oldest hotel in the country, Ibis Hotel. Campion is said to have denied being the father of five-year old girl, Marie Aurore Campion, whose mother, Annah Mukamukwiye her named after him. Mukamukwiye, 31, says she was employed at the hotel by the businessman in August 2004 after the couple had spent about two years in an intimate relationship. After only two months as a receptionist, Mukamukwiye says she discovered she was pregnant. “I informed him about the pregnancy only to tell me to terminate it, a thing I strongly resisted,” Mukamukwiye says. After a few days of disagreements on having the abortion, the couple moved together in Campion’s house in Butare town, leaving the hotel where she previously resided. The couple allegedly stayed together in the house for a period of one month, despite having disagreements.“We later agreed that he opens a bank account where he will be depositing money to help me during the pregnancy” Mukamukwiye said. According to Mukamukwiye, Campion deposited Rwf 250, 000 on a Bank of Kigali (BK) account to carter for her for a period of five months, the last financial support he has ever extended to her. It is alleged that while Mukamukwiye was in her eight month of pregnancy, Campion went missing, only to learn a few months later that he had gone back to Belgium. “He was there for three months. I had no one to help me, no job and I learnt that he came back two months after my giving birth,” Mukamukwiye says. It is however; after he came back that he denied being the father of the girl on claims that he’s infertile. “I reached out to him to support me in bringing up his child, only to tell me that he’s not the father of the child, that doctors told him he was sterile.” The matter is said to have reached Abunzi, the lowest courts at the village level in Butare to try to unite the couple but Campion allegedly informed the Butare court that he could not father a child. The currently unemployed Mukamukwiye also accuses Campion of bribing lawyers not to take on her case. “I am now trying my level best to have a DNA test to prove to him he’s the real father of my child. It hurts me having a child who doesn’t know his father when actually he is there.” When contacted, Campion only said: “Am willing to go for a DNA test if only police or courts of law order to,” before hanging up. Ends

National

Hotel proprietor dragged to court over child neglect