“I am an adult with an identity card and I will kill myself if my father denies me the chance to get married,” the 16-year-old Tabby Wangui told Senior Resident Magistrate Caroline Obara.
The father, Joseph Migwi, however insisted her daughter is 16 –years old, a minor and therefore cannot be allowed to marry her fiancé, Simon Nderitu, a deacon with the Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa.
Wangui and her mother dismissed the claims and tabled an identification card, issued on August 13, this year, which indicated she was 18 years old.
The magistrate issued summons for Laikipia East Registrar of Births and Deaths and the Medical Officer of Health to testify and an age assessment test conducted on the girl.
Migwi obtained a court order stopping the marriage. On August 25, a wedding ceremony between the two flopped at the Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa at Matanya trading centre, Laikipia Central District.
The magistrate ordered Laikipia East DCIO to conduct investigation, including subjecting Wangui to and age assessment test by a qualified doctor.
The report by the children’s department, however, indicated that the father had earlier given consent to the marriage, but changed his mind later after hitches occurred in dowry payment.
The case will be mentioned after two weeks.
