HARARE – “Till death do us part” was the vow Lyliosa Chirara says she made to her husband, Midlands State University lecturer and Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission commissioner Martin Muduva, 42.
In a chilling suicide note allegedly left after she struck Muduva three times with an axe on the head as he slept before consuming rat poison, Chirara, 43, said she had meant exactly that when she promised their marriage would only end in death.
“As I had vowed to Martin that our union would only be ended by death, this is the death that I meant,” Chirara allegedly wrote.
Muduva, an engineer by training and a commissioner with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, died at Parirenyatwa Hospital on Wednesday morning after being attacked at the couple’s home in Dzivarasekwa Extension the previous night.
Chirara, a nurse, subsequently died after allegedly consuming rat poison.
The handwritten note, published by H-Metro, offers a disturbing account of what Chirara portrayed as years of marital unhappiness, rejection and betrayal. The contents have not been independently authenticated.
She alleged that Muduva had stopped having sex with her in 2022 after obtaining his PhD, claiming he had become ashamed of being married to a woman without a university education.
“From 2022 to 2025 he never entered our bedroom and he never had sex with me because he now had a PhD so his PhD did not want him to have sex with a woman who was not educated,” she allegedly wrote.
Chirara also accused Muduva of secretly marrying another woman, named in the note as Patience Mangwiro.
She alleged that she discovered the marriage after seeing a social media post about the couple’s roora ceremony.
“He went to secretly marry the woman, he went with his relatives and I only learnt about it when I saw it on a status she posted about the Roora Day,” she wrote.
Chirara said the alleged marriage came after years in which she had struggled to save her own marriage and establish herself financially.
She claimed Muduva had objected to her keeping 500 chickens at their home for an egg-production business, forcing her to sell them.
She also alleged that he had told her his earnings were his own business and that she had no right to know how much he made.
The note suggested that Chirara believed her husband had changed after obtaining his doctorate and becoming financially successful.
“I’m crying, I’m suffering, murume avekundisema, kundisvipira mate nhasi nekuti ave nemari, akanganwa kwatakabva,” she allegedly wrote.
The passage accuses Muduva of despising and looking down on her because he had money and had forgotten where they had come from.
Chirara then appeared to address Mangwiro directly.
“Now, let Patiece Mangwiro be happy because all she wanted was to destroy my marriage with Martin,” she wrote.
She also addressed her children, saying she had wanted to watch them grow but believed the stress she was experiencing would eventually kill her anyway.
“My kids, they don’t know anything, yes, I wanted to see them grow but I would still have died because of stress, sorry, I have failed,” she allegedly wrote.
Chirara apologised to her relatives and Muduva’s family, acknowledging the devastation caused by her actions.
“To my mothers, I know I have inflicted pain on you where it hurts the most but understand this letter, I have written it with tears streaming down my cheeks,” she wrote.
She ended with an appeal for her children to be looked after.
“Chisarai mugarike, please take care of my children,” she allegedly wrote.
