BY SAM ALFAN.
Meru Senator Mithinka Linturi and his estranged wife Marrianne Kitany sacrificed a lot for the sake of their love.
Testifying in divorce proceedings, Kitany said was forced took partake Miraa, something she had not tasted before, while Linturi drunk sour milk, as part of celebration their union. This was done in April 16, 2014 when Linturi and his relatives visited Kitany’s Nandi home for dowry negotiations.
“He took Mursik even though he does not love the milk he had to take that day,” she told the court.
Describing to the court on how the ceremony was done, the former DP Ruto chief of staff said Linturi paid Sh100,000 as dowry and wondered how a marriage certificate indicating Linturi was married to one Mercy Kaimenyi only came up during the divorce proceedings.
“I got to see this document (marriage certificate) in January this year when he was responding to my petition,” she said.
While questioning the validity of the marriage certificate, Kitany said that there are many vital information missing in the marriage certificate.
The court was told that Linturi confirmed to Kitany’s relatives and close friend that he divorced all his three previous women, including Mercy Kaimenyi.
Kitany told the court that Linturi had informed her that he was single and available having divorced three wives; Susan Gacheri Kimani, Mercy Kaimenyi and Hellen Mumbi Kariuki: “I came in as the fourth wife,” she added
On the dowry payment, the court was told that Linturi gifted the mother a Nissan X-Trail, registration number KCG 850N Silver.
However this car has never been transferred to the mother, with the court been told that the car is under Atticon Company, a company belonging to the senator.
Admitting to the court that Linturi “tickled” her heart, Kitany said that Linturi was very eloquent and had no problem of speech. Did Linturi’s talk made you happy? Lawyer Omari paused a question to Kittany. “He was not under any duress during the negotiations,” said Linturi.
She added that she cooked good food for Linturi ,took very good care of him and performed all her mandate as wife to the senator.
Kitanny told the court that Linturi told her according to the tradition his parents could not attend because they had already gone to another woman’s home for dowry payment.
Earlier Kitany told the court how he used her own money to build her parents in law a house. The court was told that Kitany used a whopping Sh8 million to build them the house.
“The home, total cost together with the furnishing it was 8 million shillings …I build the home for my husband’s parents,” she said.
Apart from the home, Kitany used millions of shillings in funding the construction of the homes in Runda in Nairobi and house in Meru County.
Kitany helped built the palatial home in Runda which Linturi claims is his. She also used sh26 million from her pocket to renovate Linturi’s Meru home
She said she took care of Linturi’s kids like her own, she became a mother to those kids and a wife to Linturi.. She made sure the senator was well groomed, ate good food and used her resources to boost his businesses… Well, they say understanding a woman is complicated but I think understanding a man is more complicated.
She went ahead to reveal how she pumped her money into the Atticon business which she was managing after she left the office of the Deputy president as chief of staff.
At one point the court was told that Linturi was unable to pay for his own house rent in Ngong Road which she also helped to pay adding that she did that as a girlfriend and knew the relationship would go far.
I came to learn later that he had rent arrears and I assisted by paying…he asked for some money to pay rent and much later I got to see letters from the landlord. I gave him 200,000 shillings,” said Kitany.
Meanwhile an application has been made by Kittany’s lawyer seeking to have the DCI, registrar of marriage, companies and birth to appear in court so as to verify the documents produced in the court.
Hearing will proceed as Kitany will continue narrating to the court about their traditional marriage with the senator of Meru County.
