A popular city contractor with a power company is entangled in a court battle with his sister-in-law over custody of their nine-year-old child.
Samson Maina Kanini has moved to court seeking custody of the minor from Ruth Wanjiru Ndungu, whom he claims has denied him the right to see the child she can’t take care of.
Further, Maina, a father-of-four, wants the court to conduct social report to establish the welfare of the child and has issued restraining orders to stop Wanjiru and her current husband from threatening him.
But the businesswoman who wants Maina to pay Sh100,000 per month for school fees, medical expenses, clothes, shelter, food, entertainment and house help allowance, told the court that her brother-in-law’s intention is to harm the child and destabilize her marriage; claims which Maina has denied.
He told the court that their child was born out of wedlock following a short term relationship with Wanjiru who is his wife’s younger sister around 2005 and that he supported her throughout the pregnancy and cleared maternity bills.
“The plaintiff is a married man and husband to my blood sister and he is not truthful that we were in relationship while candidly knowing that he raped me when he visited my house as I was working and paying my bills after I stopped working for them as a house help,” Wanjiru stated.
“The plaintiff has been boasting and vowing that he shall destroy my marriage by abducting and possibly killing the minor hence he ought to be restrained from visiting the minor completely except when my husband and I are around.”
Wanjiru added that, “My parents called for an urgent meeting between the plaintiff, his parents and I. In the meeting (sic), I was advised not to report the matter to police as my brother-in-law (Maina) would be jailed and lose his job but he was fined ten goats for his behaviour.”
Wanjiru in the affidavit dated May 9, 2018 stated that Maina has never taken any responsibility of the child and has never paid for maternity charges.
Wanjiru further says that, “The plaintiff is my brother-in-law who would not like to see me in a relationship and he has destroyed my past two relationships so as to make sure that I’m not married and that he intends to continue misusing me sexually.”
In his affidavit, Maina has accused Wanjiru of evading and denying him access to his child since she got married in 2015 and now wants the court to restrain her.
“The defendant’s act of denying the plaintiff access do interfere with the childhood development and the claimant urges the honourable court to issue a stern warning against the defendant, as restraining order issued barring her from interfering with the same in terms of infringing her rights to fatherhood (sic),” said Maina in the affidavit.
But Wanjiru alleges that, “The Plaintiff has been insisting to visit the minor at night in our house and I have refused for I know his bad behaviour and demeanour (sic) of rape cases and that is why he is alleging that he has been denied access to the minor,” she claims.
“Despite the fact that I forgave him and let go, I live in pain and evidence of rape, the plaintiff is still adding salt to the injury and making my life a living hell and that of the minor.”
But Maina has accused Wanjru of conspiring with her husband to threaten him over his interaction with Wanjiru.
“On 5th May, the defendant’s husband waylaid the plaintiff while from the minor’s school, blocked the road and threatened to face out the claimant’s face from the earth if he dared continuing getting in touch with the defendant on issues relating to the subject herein (sic),” reads part of the affidavit.
According to Maina, he was rescued by onlookers in the incident reported at Buru-buru police station as OB3/5/3/2018, claims which Wanjiru has denied.
She says her current husband is good man who is inseparable with the child and adds that the minor goes to a nice school which charges Sh23,000 per term.
“It is not true that my husband has ever attacked the plaintiff or threatened him but only warned him from sending him pictures which are humiliating my husband,” she said.
She wants the plaintiff’s application to be dismissed for lack of merit.
