Former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s nephew and Personal Assistant (PA) Jomo Gecaga has been sued over child support.
Gacega is accused of dropping all support for the twins he sired with a former local TV news anchor in 2018 and her daughter whom he had taken parental responsibility for, for no apparent reason.
The journalist now wants the court to direct Gacega to pay her Sh 2.7 monthly maintenance costs effective 5th June 2023, to cater for the minors’ food, shopping, shelter, clothing, entertainment, utility bills and staff salaries.
The court heard that from 2015 to 2018, the former PA used to maintain the three minors as their father and he introduced them to a high standard of living in Runda.
“In an unexpected turn of events and for no apparent reason, the defendant began to systematically drop all support for the three minors in 2018. First, he stopped paying school fees entirely for SWK(her daughter), which resulted in her removal from Peponi School and is currently being homeschooled and has not resumed formal education,” says the mother of three.
The applicant wants the court to order Gecaga to pay the remaining school fees balance including the costs for the extra-curricular activities i.e school clubs and incidental expenses for their twins for the current academic term.
The mother of three wants the court to direct Gecaga to enrol and pay school fees for their twins in a formal school to be agreed upon by both of them within seven days of the court order pending hearing and determination of the matter.
Support withdrawn
She adds that Gecaga also withdrew support for all workers, nannies, chefs, security etc. Eventually, he stopped visiting the minors despite promising to do so numerous times and as a result, she and the three minors were evicted from the Runda home and were forced to seek shelter in a small home with manageable expenses.
“At the time of being evicted from the Runda home, the twins had joined the Vale School- Muthaiga which they also dropped out of and started being homeschooled alongside her daughter.
The plaintiff claims to have lost her job in 2020, leaving her without a regular source of income to support the children single-handedly.
According to her, the three minors are used to a certain kind of lifestyle that needs to be maintained to ensure their emotional needs are not compromised.
She claims to have been taking up loans in an attempt to maintain the level of lifestyle which the minors were used to, to ensure that they do not fall into depression.
In addition to the loans, she has been getting help from her family, friends and limited help from the minors’ grandfather- Udi Gecaga through the family trust.
The journalist swears in her affidavit that the minors have not been getting formal education since 2020 and are currently being home-schooled.
Demand letter
It is her argument that Gecaga only began to show interest towards the maintenance and care of the minors after she issued him with a demand letter in February 2023.
She adds that after the issuance of the demand letter, Gecaga enrolled the twins to the Vale School-Muthaiga, a school associated with his family, in April 2023 and paid school fees although he did not pay for extra-co curricular activities leading to the minors being denied participation in the school clubs’ activities due to the non-payment.
She argues that she was not consulted and did not agree as parents before-hand on which school the twins would be enrolled.
The court also heard that Gecaga has visited the minors twice in the month of May 2023 after issuance of the demand letter.
In addition, the mother of three wants the court to restrain Gacega, his servants or agents under his authority from taking the minors away from the jurisdiction of the court without leave and authority of the court.
“I am apprehensive that Gecaga may have intentions to permanently relocate any time from Kenya together with the minors without her knowledge given that he is in possession of their original documents and it is in the best interests of the children herein for the orders sought in this application to be granted,” the mothers pleads.
