Pay sh400,000 for your baby girl, Rongai woman tells Marende

  Former Speaker Marende at past function.   Photo: Courtesy

A woman has sued former National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende seeking Sh400,000 a month as upkeep for a child he allegedly sired.

The court has already ordered Marende to pay Sh103,000 as school fees for the three-year-old girl staying with her mother.

He is to pay rent for the house in Rongai, Nairobi, where the mother and child live, and also provide medical insurance.

The orders were issued by the Principal Magistrate F. Munyi at the Children’s Court in Nairobi following an urgent application by the woman, who says Marende is her daughter’s biological father.

The woman told the court that Marende initially performed his parental responsibilities by paying for the child’s upkeep until November 2013 when he suddenly stopped.

The woman — who says she became friends with Marende in 2008 — says she conceived in 2009 and delivered a baby girl named after Marende’s mother.

When she delivered at Nairobi Hospital, the former Speaker was excited to be a father and he assured her of unfailing support in bringing up the child, she says.

She says she trusted him on account of his age as well as the position he held as a respected Speaker of the National Assembly.

Things looked up after she delivered because she was moved from the house in Westlands to a four-bedroomed one in Lavington, according to her.

Marende then paid for her and her child’s upkeep, paid for a househelp and provided a medical policy for the child processed through the National Assembly scheme, she says.

When the child attained school-going age, she was enrolled at an international school in Karen.

She says after the General Election in 2013, Marende asked the woman to move from Lavington to Kileleshwa, to which she complied.

He later again asked her to move to Rongai, where she now lives, she says.

But things changed in November last year when Marende abruptly stopped providing upkeep, according to her.

He also failed to pay school fees for the first term, this year, a move the woman says prompted her to file the case.

“I’m not gainfully employed and I’m about to be thrown out of the house,” says the woman.

She wants the court to issue interim orders directing Marende to pay Sh475,000 monthly for the child’s upkeep pending the hearing and determination of the case.

She argues that Marende’s withdrawal of financial support has drastically affected the child, who was used to clean and spacious shelter.

She wants the court to order Marende to pay school fees amounting to Sh180,000, rent (Sh90,000), clothing (Sh60,000), entertainment (Sh100,000), electricity (Sh10,000), water (Sh5,000) and a care giver (Sh12,000). The woman is also seeking custody of the child. Marende is yet to respond to the suit, filed on January 29.

The case is scheduled for hearing on February 26, in the presence of both parties.