Morara Kebaso's marriage meltdown: Wife, kids and 'side chick' drama

Morara Kebaso with his estranged wife, Mercy Makini. [Courtesy]

Kenyan activist and politician Morara Kebaso is in a public family dispute with his estranged wife, Mercy Makini, also known as Mercy Nyanchera Morara, after she accused him of neglecting their three children following her decision to move out.

The argument escalated on social media early this month when both sides posted long statements that turned a private separation into a national conversation about parenting, money, and reputation.

The latest round of drama started when Morara broke his silence online, saying he did not want to discuss his family publicly but felt forced to speak because “the absence of factual information makes falsehood the only available information.”

In that post, he confirmed Mercy as the mother of their three children and asked Kenyans to treat her with respect.

Mercy responded within hours, saying she had walked away from the relationship six months earlier and had tried to keep it private out of respect for everyone involved.

She accused Morara of “playing the victim” and challenged his moral authority to talk about the children, asking:

“Where do you get the moral authority to mention kids that you have no idea what they’ve been eating for the last six months?”She also said he had disrespected her in private and that she had hoped that disrespect would stay private too.

Mercy has accused Morara of being absent (deadbeat) from the children’s daily lives since she left the home roughly six months ago.

In her posts, she claimed that he does not know basic details about their welfare, such as what they have been eating, and implied that his public talk about the kids does not match his actual involvement.

She also indicated that any possible reunion would need to be gradual, because the children cannot simply be “picked up abruptly” after a long period of limited contact.

These claims have since attracted public attention online because they touch on a sensitive issue for many Kenyans: whether a parent who is often in the public eye is still meeting their responsibilities at home.

Morara has strongly denied that he neglected his children. In his side of the story, he says he has been actively involved in their upbringing and has consistently taken financial responsibility for them.

He has also explained why the dispute became so heated around school fees. According to Morara, he was paying about KSh120,000 per term for two of the children at Rophine School.

He alleges that while he was on a business trip in China, Mercy moved the children to Woodcreek International School, where fees rose to about Sh1 million per term, without his consent.

He says he opposed the move not only because of the cost but also because of the “values taught in international schools,” and that Mercy later took him to court to force him to pay the new fees.

This school fee dispute is now part of the larger family conflict, with both sides seemingly using it to support their narratives: Mercy to show that major decisions were made without proper agreement, and Morara to show that he is being pushed into financial commitments he did not choose.

Cheating claims

A major reason the story captured so much attention is the infidelity angle. Soon after Morara’s statement about his family went public, social media users circulated videos and posts showing him with a woman identified as Pauline, described in some reports as a university student.

In one viral clip, Pauline refers to Morara as “my husband,” which many people read as him confirming a new relationship.

In his posts, Morara did not explicitly say Pauline is his wife, but he publicly expressed support for her, saying she was “doing a great job” and telling her to “maintain what needs to be maintained, fix what needs to be fixed, ignore what needs to be ignored.”

For many netizens, this looked like an admission that he had moved on, even as he was still legally married to Mercy and the father of their three children.

This is not the first time Morara has been linked to cheating allegations.

In March 2026, TikToker Gilo Ntinyari, the estranged partner of content creator Captain Sammir, claimed she had an affair with Morara.

In an audio, Gilo was heard confessing to the extramarital escapades with the father of three. She further stated that they had only dated twice and that she ended things when she realised he was married. Morara denied the claims and said people were “idle.”

Even though that scandal died down, netizens have since begun to connect the recent fallout involving the Pauline story to a pattern of alleged infidelity on Morara’s side.

Behind the headlines, several deeper issues have seemingly appeared:

Money and decision-making

According to Morara, the jump from Sh120,000 to about Sh1 million per term in school fees is a huge financial shift, a decision that he was never involved in making.

Values and parenting

Morara’s comment about the “values taught in international schools” shows that he prefers an otherwise environment where his children will be molded educationally and socially.

Public image vs private life

Since he is an aspiring politician eyeing a 2027 parliamentary seat in Borabu, Morara has built a public brand as a family man and activist, so the cheating allegations with Gilo, followed by the Pauline videos and now Pauline, have shown a dent to his character in the public eye.

Privacy and power

His estranged wife Mercy says she tried to keep the separation private for six months, but felt forced to respond once Morara spoke publicly.

Both are now using social media to air their dirty linen publicly.

The dispute is still unfolding on Facebook and X, with both sides posting statements and responding to each other.

Mercy continues to insist that Morara has not been present in the children’s lives and questions his right to speak about them publicly.

Morara maintains that he has been a responsible father and that the real issue is a disagreement over school choices and money, now in the courts.