Reversed roles as family court judge battle wife on upkeep

By Lucianne Limo

The shoe is firmly on the other foot as High Court Family Division judge William Musyoka fights new demands in a longrunning child maintenance court case against him by his estranged wife.

In an affidavit filed on April 22, 2013, the judge notes that Alice Wango Kimanzi raises new issues in her affidavit filed on February 20, 2013 that he needed to respond to. Alice, identified as a United Nations employee,

had earlier moved to court seeking custody of their two children and Sh75,000 as monthly maintenance.

In her court papers, Alice said she was married to the judge in 2000 and they were blessed with two sons. She accused him of deserting their matrimonial home after 13 years of marriage and failing to provide for his children, which she said had caused untold suffering, humiliation and lack of fatherly love. She asked the court to order the judge to pay for her food (Sh20,000), entertainment (Sh20,000), clothing (Sh10,000), electricity and water bills (Sh5,000), toiletries (Sh5,000), househelp (Sh5,000) and fruits and groceries (Sh10,000).

On April 8, 2011 the court ordered the judge to provide the minors’ maintenance. The mother was also granted custody of the children. The court also ordered the two to source for an affordable school for one of their children, who required special attention.

According to suit papers, the minor was enrolled at a Britishcurriculum

school in the leafy Kileleshwa suburb in Nairobi, where the two parents have been paying school fees on a 50-50 basis.

However, a dispute arose when Alice moved her son to a more expensive international school in Nakuru County and the judge apparently declined to pay the fees saying he could not afford it.

In the latest development, Alice moved to court accusing the judge of refusing to pay school fees for their son, who she said required special attention, and only two schools are able to provide such care.

“Medical report recommended that the minor can only benefit

from a curriculum that is non-demanding,” she said, providing the names of two recommended schools outside the capital.

Broken marriage

Alice stated that she informed the judge there was need to change the school but he decided not to do anything about it.

“Since the judge moved out of our matrimonial home and filed for divorce, he has become impossible to engage in any meaningful communication and opposes everything I initiate whether personally or through the advocates,” she added.

“I have lived with the judge for 13 years and I know him as a person who must be pushed to act and that is what necessitated this suit, “she added.

The judge, however, complained that he was not consulted about the move to change his son’s school.

He said he only learnt of the transfer when he went to the Nairobi-

based school in October 2012 to pay his share of the school fees and the principal informed him that there was a notice to move the minor.

The judge claimed the new school is for expatriates’ children and his estranged wife is not motivated by the minor’s interest.

He said after contacting his wife’s lawyer, he was ambushed with a letter indicating that the cost of tuition and other related expenses at the new school was Sh438,200 per term.

“The transfer was done in clear violation of a court ruling as the minor was taken to a school whose fee is double that of the (previous

school, name withheld) instead of the affordable one the court had ordered,” he added.

The judge averred that he was not in a position financially to afford the expensive school fees for the minor, who is in primary school and still has a long way to go in his education. By way of giving an indication of his modest financial ability, he explained that he had for a long time been a civil servant — first as a university lecturer for close to 20 years and now as a junior judge expensive transfers

“It is clear from (Alice’s) replying affidavit that the respondent (sic) main obsession is status, could (sic) be a desire to drain my income, and not the best interest of the child. This is demonstrated by the frequent transfers of the minor from inexpensive schools to more expensive schools,” said the judge, adding that the child’s first school charged fees of Sh5,000 per term before he was moved to the one in Kileleshwa that

charged Sh200,000 and now to one where he is required to pay more than double the charges.

The judge said his wife’s junior position at the UN meant that the new school is “above her league”.

He asked the court to order that the minor be returned to the city school and if not possible, he be allowed to pay Sh100,000 — the equivalent of what he would have paid at the previous school. He further claimed that

his estranged wife was entitled to up to 80 per cent reimbursement from the UN for school fees for her minor children and was, therefore, abusing the court process as she was allegedly getting from her employer a refund of the 50 per cent she paid and 30 per cent from what he paid.

The judge, however, reaffirmed his commitment to paying his 50 per cent school fees at their son’s previous school or an institution arrived at after proper consultation between both parties.

In his affidavit, the judge alsogave the background of their marriage.

“When I married the respondent, she was not highly educated and was mainly a housewife.

I paid her fees at the Kenya School of Professional Studies, where she obtained a diploma, and later enrolled for a degree course at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). It is this training that enabled her to land her current job at the United Nations,” he said.

Reversed roles

Used to listening to arguments by men and women seeking separation, divorce, child custody or upkeep, the High Court judge will this time — and not for the fi rst time — be expected to present his side of the story to a colleague, Mwicigi Kinuthia, when the case is mentioned before the Children’s Court Magistrate.

The Judicial Service Commission appointed Justice Musyoka last year as one of eight new judges, almost two years after Alice filed the case. In academic circles he is considered an expert in family law and has several publications to his name.

thenairobian@standardmedia. co.ke