Meru Senator Mithika Linturi says documents presented in court by Ms Marianne Kitany, a former chief of staff at Deputy President William Ruto’s office, showing he had divorced his wife Mercy Kaimenyi are forgeries.
In a case to be heard Tuesday, Mr Linturi says he is still married to Ms Kaimenyi.
He has attached certificates to show he married Ms Kaimenyi on April 8, 2000, at Tigania Catholic Parish in Meru when he was only aged 31, and was in insurance business, while she was a teacher.
A January 10 letter by the Deputy Registrar of the Family Division of the High Court, Ms C. Kendagor, says a divorce cause quoted by Ms Kitany, showing that Mr Linturi and Ms Kaimenyi had parted ways, refers to another matter and not between Franklin Mithika and Mercy Kaimenyi.
The letter was a response to a request by Mr Linturi through his lawyer Muthomi Thiankolu, to determine the genuineness of the divorce petition filed in Meru court.
The senator has maintained that he is only married to one woman and not Ms Kitany.
“I am in a monogamous relationship with only one woman who is not Kitany,” he says.
Last week, Justice John Onyiego restrained the senator from evicting Ms Kitany from their Runda home in Nairobi and ordered the preservation of properties jointly owned by the two, pending the determination of a case she has filed.
Mr Linturi has filed a case on the matter in Meru, while Ms Kitany has filed divorce proceedings at the Family Division of the High Court in Nairobi, a property dispute involving two companies — Atticon Limited and Baron Estates Ltd — and a case before a magistrate seeking the court’s protection after she was kicked out of the Runda home.
Justice Onyiego barred Mr Linturi from interfering with Ms Kitany in Runda, pending the hearing of the case.
Among the properties the court ordered preserved are the Runda home, two vehicles, cash in several bank accounts and parcels of land in Kajiado.