Prof Beverly Michelle Lax wants the court to compel the Chief Justice to pay her a monthly maintenance fee of Sh150,000 for her utility bills and also get her a medical cover.
Prof Lax said she is unwell and jobless and therefore she wanted him to continue maintaining her as he has been doing since July 26, 2012 when her divorce was granted.
Granting the divorce, the court had ordered the Chief Justice to pay her the maintenance for six months or until she got a job, whichever came first. The six months period ended in January this year.
In her new application, Prof Lax confirmed that the CJ had since July last year, been paying Sh150,000 as maintenance which included her utility bills, cable television, membership at Parklands Club, car and domestic insurance as well as medical cover.
She says that the CJ has not paid maintenance since February this year which has caused her ” irreparable loss.”
The 55 year old American woman says that the CJ ought to continue paying for her upkeep until an appeal she has filed in a matrimonial property case is heard and determined.
She said even though she is highly educated, she has been unable to secure a job because she is a foreigner. Her medical complications have also contributed to her joblessness, she says.
“My health is not very good which compromises my ability to get a job,” she said.
She says the CJ is able to continue paying her maintenance as he was earning Sh833,602 per month apart from other benefits such as security, medical cover, car and sitting allowances which he receives from the Judicial Service Commission.
According to Prof Lax the CJ also gets a monthly payment from his pension fund of Sh32,215,000 which he receives from his former employer— Ford Foundation.
She also claims that the CJ owes her some $35,537 (Sh2,985,108 at the current rates) which she claims he withdrew from their joint account in June 2010.
She argues that she needs the maintenance fee until her matter is finalized because the Sh13 million she has in her account is her old age insurance.
The CJ married Prof Lax in San Mateo, California on July 20, 2000. Nine years later, on December 16, 2009, the CJ filed for divorce which was granted in July last year by High Court judge Justice G B M Kariuki on the grounds of cruelty.
The allegations of cruelty made by Prof Lax in her cross-petition which she filed on May 13, 2010, were dismissed. Mutunga has been married twice before. He has two children with his first wife and one child each with two other different women.
The CJ in his petition accused Prof Lax of treating him with “cruelty” since they got married. He indicated that she both physically and verbally assaulted him.
He claimed that Prof Lax was a person of ‘ungoverned temper’ and on various occasions during the course of the marriage, she had physically and verbally assaulted him.
Mutunga also claimed that during the duration of their marriage, Prof Lax had persisted in calling his ex-wife,their son and daughter “parasites’ when she new that such name calling caused him immense pain and torture.
She denied the accusations of being a person of ‘ungoverned temper’. Prof Lax application to have the CJ continue paying her maintenance will be heard on May 16.
