Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa has asked the Lusaka High Court to vary the maintenance order dated April 23, which compelled him to be paying child maintenance of K7,000 per month, lamenting that he has been struggling to keep up with his other obligations.

Sampa is asking the court to reduce the monthly maintenance to K1,500 to enable him equally and properly maintain his other four children and himself.

In this matter, Sampa’s ex wife Mwika Mwenechanya, had asked the Lusaka High Court to to cite Sampa for contempt and order the Lusaka City Council to be dedicating K7,000 from the mayor’s monthly salary for the maintenance of the child.

As the result, the court ordered Sampa to be maintaining his child with K7,000, monthly .

But in an affidavit in support of summons for an order to vary the maintenance order filed September 11, Sampa stated that he had complied with all court orders and moved the said child of the family to Baobab School of Lusaka and paid all outstanding bills to the American International School amounting to K87,000/US6,613, as confirmed by the school.

He stated that he had also put the child of the family on the Lusaka City Council mescaline scheme and provided a driver to be taking her to and from school everyday, adding that he buys her clothes every three months in a year.

Sampa also explained that his salary was K20,000, and as a Mayor of Lusaka, his personal monthly expenses on food and clothing only, was K8,000, adding that he had four other children who also depended on his monthly income.

He stated that he intended to raise all his five children equally and fairly without appearing to be favoring any of them.

Sampa stated that the court found, as a matter of fact in it’s April 23 ruling, that his former wife was an economist at Bank of Zambia who got a monthly salary of over K50,000 without bonuses and she only had one child of the family to maintain.

He explained that he had a mortgage with Stanbic Bank amounting to K882,036.29 together with accrued interest calculated at 24.75 percent per annum adding that the bank had since sent him a final demand notice on the loan.