Meru Senator Franklin Mithika Linturi has lost the first round in the divorce proceedings by his estranged wife Marianne Kitany.
This is after trial magistrate Peter Gesora dismissed his application to strike out the divorce matter on grounds that he did not have capacity.
Gesora directed the matter be set for full hearing for cross examination of the parties and witnesses.
“I dismiss the application and direct the matter to proceed to full hearing,” ruled Gesora.
The magistrate ruled that there is evidence on how the two met with the sole intention solemnizing the relationship.
Linturi argues that he has never been married to Kitany as he has a wife with whom they married in the year 2000 in a church Meru.
However, according to Kitany, former Chief of Staff at the office of the Deputy President, she was married to the Senator under customary marriage where he visited her parents and gave ‘gifts’.
She stated that she was a mother to six children; three of her own and three fathered by Linturi in his previous relationships.
They moved in together with their children and lived like husband and wife.
Linturi produced a marriage certificate to prove that he got married in 2000 and has never divorced his wife.
The court questioned “if the marriage was contracted between the applicant and his wife in 2000, why was the marriage certificate obtained on 28th December 2018, 18 years later”?
The certificate was also obtained only a few days to the filing of this application.
According to the ruling, section 6 of the marriage Act allows recognition of customary marriage while subsection (ii)restricts one in a monogamous marriage from marrying again.
The court also found that the signatures appearing on the court documents for the applicant and that in the certificate are different.
It was further found that the certified copy of marriage certificate lacks crucial information and has a lot of discrepancies.
Kitany intends to call 30 witnesses from Meru, Kericho and Nandi.
The case will be heard on 23, 24 and 25th July.
