Malindi court restrains Italian from evicting Kenyan wife in divorce dispute

An Italian has been restrained from evicting his Kenyan wife from their matrimonial home until a divorce and maintenance case she has filed is heard and determined.

Judith Pendo Kombe is seeking to divorce Franco Benedict, her husband of one year, for allegedly mistreating her and being adulterous.

Kombe went to court on December 5, 2017 through Mwaure and Mwaure Company Advocates.

On December 6, 2017, Senior Resident Magistrate Silvia Wewa restrained the defendant, his servants, and agents from interfering with the plaintiff’s quiet stay and enjoyment of their matrimonial home in Gede pending the hearing and determination of the case.

According to documents before the court, the two got married in January this year in a customary marriage attended by family and friends.

Wife and husband

“The plaintiff and defendant are wife and husband who entered into a customary marriage in January 2017 and the dowry payment ceremony took place on August 15, 2017,” an affidavit reads in part.

Kombe claims that barely four months into their marriage, Benedict in April started mistreating her, engaged in an adulterous relationship, and threw her (Kombe) out of the house.

She further told the court that despite a reconciliation meeting, her husband continued to mistreat her.

Kombe also told the court that Benedict was at one time assaulted by another woman and admitted to a local hospital and she took care of him.

“The defendant is a man of loose morals and exposes the plaintiff to the risk of contracting dreadful sexual diseases. He is now threatening to throw the plaintiff out of their matrimonial home again and there is imminent risk of him bringing in another woman to the house in the plaintiff’s absence and take over the house as the owner,” Kombe’s lawyers said.

The court set the hearing for December 18, 2017.