Senator Linturi and Marianne Kitany’s ‘wedding’ photos produced in court

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The court has been shown a number of photos alleged to have been taken during Meru Senator Mithika Linturi and former Chief of staff at the office of DP William Ruto, Marianne Kitany’s traditional marriage.

The photos which were taken in Nandi county (Kitany’s home) and Linturi’s home shows family members of the two and also their children st the ceremony.

There were photos of the two holding miraa (khat) smiling and others showing them chew the miraa as a sign of the union according to the Senator’s culture.

Kitany’s also produced photos showing the construction of their Runda hone which is the centre of dispute.

Led by her lawyer Dunstan Omari in the examination in chief, Kitany’s told the court that the two moved in together with their children and started living like a family.

Wedding rings

The witness went on to testify that at the time when she travelled with the senator outside the country to buy finishes for their house in Meru which was also under construction after being demolished for expansion, Linturi bought the wedding rings they were wearing.

She averred that Linturi has been wearing the ring all along until a few days ago. While making this statement, Linturi even went ahead to lift his hand to show her that he was wearing no ring.

Kitany refuted claims that she just a ‘mere visitor’ in the Runda home and not a wife to the senator who is allegedly a married man.

The senator claims to have married one Mercy Kaimenyi in Igembe in the year 2000.

Rocky relationship

The court heard in December 2017, barely two years into the said marriage, the relationship became rocky.

She said that she noticed the senator had changed and started feeling that there was a third party in their relationship.

She said that Linturi would sometimes get home very late and even accused him of denying her conjugal rights.

“One day I checked through his phone and found that there were women who were sending him nude photos and pornographic videos,” she said

In addition, she said that they talked about the issue in the presence of a mutual friend and the senator said he would change.

After this ordeal, Kitany said she later found out that the senator had taken property documents belonging to her relatives and charged them at the bank without their knowledge.

At this time the senator was in USA for official visit and upon return to the country, she confronted him.

This altercation made Lintury leave Nairobi and moved to Meru by himself. After staying away for several weeks, Kitany’s decided to involve the parents in the matter.

However the meeting arranged to help solve the matter did not yield much. Another meeting was scheduled for October.

Dead househelp

After the second meeting, Kitany’s allegedly received a call from one of the two househelps she had hired to take care of the house.

The help said she wanted to talk to Kitany about an issue. Kitany went to Meru that weekend while the senator was out of the country to hear what she (house help) had to say.

The lady asked Kitany whether she was aware that other women were being brought to that house. Her answer was yes. However the house help was not done and agreed to talk again the following weekend.

The second meeting between then did not happen since the girl died mysteriously about two days later.

Thereafter she started receiving death threats from the senator which prompted her to seek protection from court and file for the divorce.

She even accused Linturi of hiring a woman who confessed to her that he had been hired to befriend her and then kill her by poisoning her.

Since then (2018) the two have been fighting over the Runda house while the divorce case continues at the high court.

Linturi had once evicted Kitany from the said house only for the court to order Linturi out, and Kitany back in.

It is alleged that the said house was built by Kitany on a piece of land owned by the senator.