Samuel Kahiga’s hasty marriage to his fiancée Maryanne Wambui came to an abrupt end after Mary Wairimu stormed the Registrar of Marriages offices in Nakuru last month and stopped the wedding with her five children in tow.
Wairimu, a vegetable vendor claimed that she was married to Kahiga for 17 years and have five children together.
Wairimu stopped Kahiga’s wedding on July 17 on grounds that she was not informed of the marriage and claimed Kahiga had abandoned his family without maintenance for one year.
Kahiga admitted he had five children with Wairimu but strongly contested claims that they had been married for 17 years.
According to Wairimu, Kahiga chased her out of their matrimonial home and has failed to provide for her children’s maintenance over the years.
Wairimu says she got wind that her husband was secretly planning to wed at the Registrar of marriages offices without her consent.
“When he left he took everything from the children, they have nothing to hold on to and worse off he wants to marry a second wife,” she says.
Wairimu, who sells vegetables at a local market in Nakuru town has been left with the burden of raising five kids with her meagre earnings.
“When I was carrying our last-born I only saw him only three times. He abandoned us after learning I was pregnant with the fifth child,” Wairimu says.
After the case moved to hearing, Kahiga lost a bid to compel his estranged wife to the pay cost of the wedding after the court threw out his case.
The court struck out the case dashing Kahiga’s hopes of getting married to his fiancée on grounds that the suit papers were prepared by a lawyer who did not have a practising certificate.
Kahiga sued Wairimu, a mother of five, Kiamaina Location Chief James Kariuki and the Nakuru Registrar of Marriages whom he claimed irregularly stopped his wedding.
He told principal magistrate John Mwaniki that Wairimu’s actions to stop his wedding had caused him untold anguish and suffering.
He also asked the court to compel Wairimu to pay for losses and damages incurred as a result of the botched wedding.
Through lawyer Olaly Cheche, Kahiga had asked the court to issue restraining orders against Wairimu from interfering with his wedding to Wambui.
Lawyer Anthony Ouma who was representing Wairimu told the court the lawyer who drafted Kahiga’s affidavits had not been licensed to practice law for the last three years.
Ouma told the court that lawyer Maxwell Ogunda who commissioned Kahiga’s affidavits was not licensed by the Law Society of Kenya to practice as a lawyer.
He argued Kahiga’s suit before court was an abuse of court process while noting it failed to disclose a cause of action.
Mwaniki upheld the defence’s assertions while dismissing the case and ordered Cheche’s law firm to pay the costs of the suit.
By Patrick Kibet, standardmedia.co.ke
Follow @africanewspost
