Numbers up for politicians who frolic with campus beauties

            Campus models love affair with influential politicians

Female university student leaders and campus models have sired children with influential politicians in arrangements that keep the children out of public knowledge.

Investigations by The Nairobian have established that campus beauties are silenced with promises of money for upkeep and education.

“We are now thinking about getting a second child,” a former female student leader from a public university in Nairobi said.

She requested not to be named for fear of exposing the father of her child to the public.

In one of the cases, a married former Cabinet minister and now senator, whom we cannot name because of legal reasons, has fathered a son with a former powerful female student leader whom he has seen through her masters studies.

In another instance, a prominent lawyer impregnated a student leader he was representing and has so far managed to keep the child sired out of wedlock secret.

Investigations by The Nairobian have also revealed that three governors pay bills, have bought cars and meet education expenses for young university students.

Most of the young women who have fallen for top politicians and influential men are female students who went to seek financial support during student elections and campus beauty queens who met them during university pageants.

“Yes. It’s true. Most of us are dating influential businessmen and top politicians,” a campus beauty queen told The Nairobian.

The students we interviewed told us they met the politicians when they went to seek financial support from them during campus elections.

“After a few coffee dates with my man, I decided to drop my campus boyfriend,” one of the students said.

“I am pregnant with his child. The good thing is that I am finishing my studies at the university this year.”

A former Miss University said she met her governor boyfriend when he was a guest for their campus beauty pageant.

“He gave a lot of money during the pageant and then gave me his phone number and told me that I should call and meet him for business,” she said. “When I met him, he openly asked me out.”

Many of the children sired out of wedlock are often kept secret for years, even decades.

According to officials at the Family Division Court, who are not allowed to give their names or speak to the press, several new paternity cases involve students who have now gone to court to have their high-flying personality lovers pay for their children’s upkeep.

So far, the highest profile case involving a university student and politician to hit the public domain was that of former Cabinet secretary and MP Peter Oloo Aringo who was sued in August 2005 for the upkeep of a three-year-old child.

A number of the ‘illegitimate’ children have also gone to court to convince their ‘fathers’ to accept them.

In the recent past, at least ten have been dragged to courts to be forced to take care of ‘their’ children.

Details of a DNA suit involving former Cabinet minister Fred Gumo and a six-month-old child in an ongoing paternity suit done in late September are yet to come out in the public domain.

In September, Gumo had requested the court for a DNA test after a woman, who is now a county representative in Nairobi, filed a suit in court seeking upkeep for a child she claims the minister fathered and even suggested the name.

The county representative said she met Gumo in 2008 and had an affair with him until February 2012 when she got pregnant.

In August, Bungoma senator aspirant Moses Wetangula was ordered to pay monthly maintenance fees amounting to Sh270,000 by a Children’s Court to a woman who sued him for neglect.

Other influential personalities who have faced paternity claims include former assistant minister John Keen and Murang’a senator Kembi Gitura.

The applications for DNA tests were dismissed by the courts because the ‘children of the politicians’ were over the age of 18 and so not covered by the Children’s Act.

In May, the burial arrangements of Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo were almost put on hold after the daughter of his worker, 23-year-old Eunice Nthenya, demanded for a DNA sample to confirm paternity of her seven-year-old son.

In October, former Presidential candidate Nazlin Rajput Umar sued tycoon Madatali Chatur under claims that he was her husband and had promised to take care of her children.

On October 1, 2009, twins took the then Housing Minister and Malava MP Soita Shitanda to court asking for money to cater for food, school fees, transport, medical care and other expenses.

On June 24, 2008 former Malindi MP Lucas Maitha was sued for child support for two children.

In February, George Thuo, a secondary school teacher, who claimed to be Njenga Karume’s son, withdrew a burial objection that threatened to stop the burial of the former Defence minister.

According to lawyer Harold Ayodo, illegitimate children have right to property.

“The Law of Succession Act provides that children born out of extra-marital affairs are heirs of their biological fathers and Article 53 of the Constitution provides that a child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the baby,” says Ayodo.